Harry Potter and the Chronology Chaos
by DeeplyEmbarrassed
Summary: An Alternate Timeline/Alternate Universe story. Features plot, plot and more plot. Expect out of Character behaviour to be kept to a minimum and for the rules of the Harry Potter universe to be abided by. No needless bashing here. Comments and PMs welcome.
1. Chapter 1

May 2nd, 1998  
Forbidden Forest

Harry Potter, Boy-who-lived, was going to die. That is what he was here for. It had taken him a long time to get to where he was, sneaking out of the now crumbling hogwarts castle and making his way across the school grounds and into the forbidden forest.

"I open at the close" read the engraving on the snitch and, having retrieved them from inside of it, had rolled the two small stones in his hand. He had seen his parents, his godfather, Lupin and others and had walked with them to what he knew was going to be his last moments.

"Will you stay with me?" Harry asked.  
"Until the very end" Came the reply.

* * *

After some time he cast the stones aside and stepped out into a clearing to face his enemy and his mortality. Words were shared and a moment later there was a flash of green.  
Harry felt his heart grow cold, his legs went limp from under him and he fell to the forest floor even as he felt something inside him being propelled and lifted away.

Harry woke. Not the slow groggy waking that followed a nights sleep but, instead, sudden awareness. He looked at the ceiling above him and for a moment struggled to understand what it was he was looking at. After some time he realised it was the inside of his 4 poster bed, inside the gryffindor dorm rooms, at hogwarts. He hadn't seen it in more than a year nor had he slept in a bed so comfortable.

It felt as if He hadn't slept, his muscles ached and His eyes hurt. Lifting himself up on one elbow he surveyed the room He knew so well. The clean stone surfaces, the red and gold rugs in the centre of the room and the beds and trunks that sat against the circular walls.

He wasn't alone. Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom were all asleep in their respective beds, He could see, but Ron was conspicuously absent.  
 _"This has to be a dream. Or heaven?"_ Harry thought to himself looking around _"If this is heaven the afterlife is pretty crappy"_  
He rolled out of bed quietly, pulled out a set of clothes and got dressed. Jeans and an old white shirt. He considered for a moment waking the Boys to talk to them but looking outside He saw the sun hadn't yet risen fully. Even in a dream Harry was more considerate than that, that and He wanted to avoid Seamus' moaning, so he moved to the door before letting himself out.

Slowly, he made his way down the spiral stairs and into the common room, his aching legs giving him grief with every step.  
The common room looked much the same as he remembered it. The same red and gold colours that dominated anything gryffindor were in appearance here too, and the room was lined with sofas and chairs. A fireplace took centre stage on the longest wall but it wasn't lit. The only thing Harry noticed that was different was a mural of newspaper clippings and photos that had been taken of Harry's exploits in the Triwizard tournament was missing, instead just showing a blank piece of stone wall.  
There was a student Harry didn't recognise curled up on one of the larger chairs snoring quietly but no one else and so after enjoying the quiet of the place for a moment he moved on.

The painting that functioned as the only door to the common room swung open for him as it should and as he pushed it closed behind him he took a look over his shoulder to see a slumbering fat lady within the frame. He stopped for a moment to consider his next move.  
 _Do I really want to go any further? Do I really want to see the entrance hall of the castle, the damage, the bodies?_ He shook the image. _If Neville and the others were all happily asleep in their beds then whatever happened to the school in real life hadn't happened in this dream, Right?_

A few minutes walking later and he came to the stairs leading down to the entrance hall. He took a deep breathe and braced himself for what he was about to see. There was nothing to see, it turned out, just a normal hall as it had been before the attack on Hogwarts. The vaulted ceiling still stood, the stairs were undamaged and the old, well walked carpets were as clean as they had ever been. One or two students were waiting outside of the great hall for the doors to open for breakfast but nothing seemed odd or out of place. He went to move over to the great hall but stopped when he heard a voice he recognized.

"Hello, Harry" Harry turned to where the voice had come from to see Percy Weasley in full stride in his direction with the smug look he always wore on his face.  
"Uhh Hi" He replied. It was odd seeing him in school robes again and his features were noticeably narrower and less blemished than last time Harry had seen him. _"Percy hadn't been at hogwarts for what? 3 years? More?"_  
"Breakfast isn't being served for a few minutes yet, Harry. What are you doing here so early?" His tone was almost accusatory. _Merlin, Percy is an ass._  
"Couldn't sleep, i guess." Harry replied, still somewhat nonplussed. Before Percy could say anything Harry piped up again "Percy, what's the date today?"  
"You should get more sleep, Harry. It won't do to have you taking exams in this state. You have your houses reputation to uphold. remember? And it's tuesday, June seventh, since you asked"  
"Thanks, and yeah, i guess so."  
"Get a bite to eat and try to wake up some. I'm sure you do have some tests today, hmm?"  
"Uhh yeah, i think so"  
"Alright then. Best of luck" and with that, he trotted off, head held high.

June was test month, so that checked out at least although it definitely wasn't june last He'd checked. Harry thought for a moment and then it hit him. Percy had his Head Boy's badge on. That made it Percy's last year at Hogwarts and so that made it… what...Harry's fourth year? Third, maybe? And the date? The 7th? That was important. It took him a moment more.  
Sirius.  
Sirius had escaped on the night of the 6th, just as that year's tests started. Harry was in his third year. Sirius has just escaped and so was still alive. The fact he had to work that out was beginning to lend credence to the idea that maybe he wasn't dreaming at all.  
Then the next thought. "What should I do about that? Whether is it a dream or not, what's My best course of action? What needs to happen?" He smirked a little to Himself. "What would Dumbledore do?"  
Then another realisation hit him, this time big enough to make the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. _Sirius was alive. Dumbledore was alive. Nobody was dead._  
Then a terrible thought followed.  
 _Nobody was dead, yet._  
He needed Dumbledore's help if He was going to make sense of this.

* * *

A few minutes later and Harry stood at some familiar gargoyles. Harry thought for a moment on what the sweet of the day might have been but there was no way that even if he knew it at the time He'd remember it.

"Fizzing Whizbees" Nothing.  
"Sherbet Lemon" Also nothing. Harry spent a good minute shouting the names of various sweets before finally trying "Liquorice wand" and the stone beasts jumped aside.

 _Climbing the stairs he was suddenly filled with doubts. "What if this is a dream? What if He isn't there?"_  
 _"well_ " he thought in response to himself " _I've dealt with him dying before. I could deal with that too_ " and Harry gave a good knock on the heavy wooden door.

There was no reply. No movement. No sound.  
Harry knocked again, louder this time. Again there was no noise.  
Harry punched the door in frustration.

"You may come in when you're done attacking my door" Came a measured voice from inside. Harry tentatively pushed the door open and peaked inside. As the door revealed the room inside he took in the floor to ceiling shelves filled with all manner of magical oddities. The desk sat where it always had, littered with even more items of increasing complexity and of unfathomable purpose. The office looked much like it had in Harry's earlier years.

"Ah, Harry. Is there something i can do for you this early in the morning or may i return to the business of sleeping?" Said Dumbledore, His eyes sparkling with just a touch of mirth over his half moon spectacles. Harry walked into the room fully and took in the sight before him. The old man stood in sky blue robes, beard and all, just in front of his desk, resting a hand upon the surface. There was a moment of silence before he continued "Is something the matter, Harry? Is this about last night? From what i hear you performed admirably."

Not seeing the response that was meant to engender, his brow creased. Harry just stood looking at him for a moment before a tear leapt to his eye.  
"I don't know how to start, Professor. I…" The words suddenly wouldn't come. Looking at the eyes beyond those half moon specs was surreal.  
"It's quite alright. Take your time. We have plenty of it"

Harry took a moment to think. "How do I say what I'm thinking? Where do I start?" and then the answer jumped to him. Like so many difficult stories that had been shared with Harry before He would share his the same way.

"Professor, Can I use your pensieve?"

* * *

Dumbledore let out a great sigh. As the air left him he seemed to diminish in size and for a moment was just an old, tired man, before collecting himself and straightening his back. They had been wandering the world of memories for a few hours at least and every event that dumbledore witnessed he seemed to wither a little more.  
The two locked eyes and for a long moment they said nothing, only sharing in the things they had just seen together.

Harry had placed in the stone pensieve a number of his memories, a shortened version of the events that would lead to the destruction of the horcruxes and Harry facing Voldemort in the Forest.

Now they walked in that memory behind an image of the Boy-who-lived, standing tall and unafraid in the face of death. The memory was frozen in place as Harry allowed Dumbledore to take in what he was seeing, the wand raised and the green flash of the killing curse.

"I ask again, Harry, is this some kind of vision? I can't say I fully understand what it is I'm seeing."

Harry looked at him again. It was unbelievable, that all of this could so clearly be recollected without it actually happening but then, so was the fact that Harry was four or so years older than the body he now occupied.

"Just a moment more, Professor. It's about to become clear, I promise." If the scenes they'd spent their morning reliving weren't as depressing Harry might have chuckled at him being the cryptic one for a change.  
Harry turned back to the events unfolding before them, Dumbledore taking the hint and doing the same, before, with a wave of Harry's hand, the scene continued.  
Voldemort's curse struck true and Harry fell.

And then immediately they were inside the gryffindor dorm room, standing over a boy who looked rather confused to find himself in bed. Dumbledore quickly raised his hand, stopping the memory again.  
"That can't be right. Is this correct? Is this one, continuous memory, Harry?" He said, turning to the young boy. The mirthful old man had dropped away entirely, He looked worried, stressed. Harry just nodded.  
" I don't know how, but yes"

Dumbledore looked back at the memory of Harry lying in front of him before waving his arm. The scene reversed itself and they were back in the forest, Voldemort laughing at his imminent triumph over the upstart Potter. This time it played out slowly, the killing curse traveled at walking pace across the clearing and Dumbledore walked with it, his eyes ablaze, his focus intense. The spell struck, the scene changed back to the gryffindor dorm. They stood in the dorm room for only a moment before the Headmaster harrumphed to himself, shook his head and flicked his wand.

All of a sudden Harry felt a pull as Dumbledore removed them both from the pensieve. Standing back in Dumbledore's office the Headmaster looked up at a clock before releasing the slightest of sighs and turning to his younger companion.

"Harry, I'm needed at the ministry. Minister Fudge needs some help to explain Sirius' disappearance last night. Leave this with Me. I will let Professor Mcgonagall know of your absence from your examinations. I will do some research and write to you as soon as I have something useful to tell you.

And I really am sorry for everything you've been through."

* * *

It was past 8 by the time Harry walked back to the great hall and it was a bustle with activity. Harry walked in through the doors and stopped to take a look around.

There were faces all around He recognised, some He thought He'd never see again, and some who didn't know him yet. He spotted Luna and Cho at opposite ends of the Ravenclaw table, the former sitting almost alone. At the staff's table sat Professor Snape next to Professor Trelawney, obviously doing his best to ignore whatever it was that the divination Professor was saying to Him. Harry took a good look, feeling his stomach drop, before snapping out of the stupor having heard His name called. He gaze wandered over to the Gryffindor table to see a number of redheads and one messy brunette who was waving him over. Harry made his way to them and sat next to Hermione, across from Ginny, Fred and George. Ginny locked eyes with Him for just a moment, before going bright red and involving Herself in Her breakfast.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Hermione smiled at him "So you know, Ron's going to be in the hospital wing for a few hours yet."  
"Yeah, I'm good. And ok. He's alright?"  
"And what, may I ask, happened last night?" asked one of the twins, interrupting.  
"Never you mind." She snapped at him with a smile. "He's fine, Harry, but You look tired. Didn't you sleep? And why aren't you in Your robes? There's tests today" Hermione said looking Him up and down.  
"Yeah, i know. Just..." He gave his thoughts a second to catch up. "I went to Dumbledore's office this morning. He wanted to ask me some things."  
"Things? What things? Something I should know about?" She asked quickly, wide eyed.

Obviously She was worried about being punished for what they had gotten up to the night before. It reminded Harry of a conversation years earlier. _"Now, if you two don't mind, I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed, or worse, expelled."_

Harry's eyes wandered up the table, taking in all the faces. Lavender Brown sat far to Harry's right munching bacon and talking animatedly with one of the Patil girls. Colin Creevey sat closer to the left playing with his camera. Finally Harry's eyes settled on the Weasley twins. Suddenly, Harry found himself wishing he'd skipped breakfast. He wasn't really in the mood to deal with all the noise or the questions and he certainly wasn't ready to share breakfast with friends who just yesterday He watched die. He died Yesterday too, afterall, and deserved some time to rest.

"Don't worry about it, I'll tell you later" He said looking her in the eye and giving Her his best attempt at a smile before grabbing some toast and getting up to leave.  
"Okay. Hurry up and get changed. You have tests to prepare for."  
"Hermione, you're the only one that's ever prepared" Quipped Ginny as Harry made his way out of earshot.

* * *

He found himself thinking of what had happened as he made his way out of the main door and out into the grounds. The weather was about as foul as his mood, grey skies and heavy clouds threatening rain.

He saw it all again. The weasleys gathered around Fred's body. Lupin and Tonks lying next to each other. Lavender crushed by Her fall. The cold stares of the victims of killing curses. The countless bodies strewn across the fields. A crying hufflepuff girl, covered in blood, as she cradled another dying student in her arms.

It was too much to think about. The scars Hermione had earnt saving His life. He had watched Hedwig fall to her death but now she was probably up in the tower waiting for him to come see her. He had buried Dobby but he would be down in kitchens working with a smile on his face now.

Harry stopped walking when he realised He had come to the Forbidden forest's edge. He still had the toast in his hand He had grabbed but not eaten. He threw it into the trees.  
He wanted to cry but the tears wouldn't come. He wasn't upset although he felt he should be. He was angry, angry at the injustice of it all. He had done the impossible and ventured alone to sacrifice himself for everyone else and that had been taken away from him.  
 _Will i have to do it again? Did any of it matter? I spent a year running for nothing!_  
It built up inside Him, a bubble that inflated under his chest and made him feel sick, the anger growing until, finally, He shouted His anger into the forest, wordlessly cursing it. He screamed and swore and kept shouting until finally the tears came and then he cried huge, heavy sobs. _This is what it means to be the boy-who-lived. To be alone in the worst ways._

"Ar yer a'right 'Arry?" The Voice made him jump. "I can leave yer be if you wan'?"  
Harry turned to a big man in a brown trench coat. Hagrid was walking the treeline from the castle, a pair of slain hare in one hand. Harry thought for just a moment before replying "No, and no." He let out a sigh and sniffed, wiping his nose on his shirt. "I could do with the company, i think." Hagrid smiled.  
"Righ'. Le's ge' Us a cuppa tea then."

* * *

They'd made their way to Hagrid's cramped little cottage and had shared in some tea and inedible cakes. Once the tears had stopped Hagrid mentioned the good news, Buckbeak had escaped!  
"Musta' not tied 'im down proper" He said with a smile and maybe the beginnings of a tear in his eye.  
Harry thought for a moment. Last time around He'd kept the truth to himself, He remembered. _Let Everyone think it was just a mistake._  
"No, Hagrid." The big man looked him in the eye, concern jumping to his face. "I did it. I untied him when the ministry Guys were in here." Harry gestured with one arm at the inside of the cottage.  
"'Arry, Yer shouldn' have. If the Minis'ry find ou'..."  
"They won't, if you don't tell them." Harry interrupted with a smile. "Besides, trouble is what I'm good at." A quiet moment passed then Hagrid simply asked "Why'd ya do it?"  
Harry thought for a moment. Yesterday was years ago, afterall.  
"Fuck the Malfoys, that's why."

* * *

End of chapter 1

* * *

It's been a long time since i last wrote anything, so please forgive me if i misspell anything or if my mind travels faster then the story does and it becomes hard to follow. I'm no novelist but I've had this burning away in my brain for long enough now that it needs writing down, if only to get it out and away.  
Constructive criticism is more than welcome. This is chapter 1. I'm not so sure how much i'll write but if enough people like it maybe i'll write some more.

Ofcourse it goes without saying that i in no way have any claim to any creative rights with the Harry Potter books or films.  
Any events in this story are entirely historical, although names and dates have been changed to protect identities. XD


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The two of them, Harry and Hagrid, stayed inside the cabin for most of the rest of the day. Hagrid may have had a terrible history of cake making but, as Harry found out, He could prepare rabbit just fine and so the two of them ate together and talked for most of the day.

It dawned on Harry that, aside from the first time they had spoken and Hagrid had liberated Harry from the tyranny of the Dursleys, this was the longest they had spent together. Not only in the three years that had passed here in this ever-more-likely-not-a-dream-world but in the seven that had passed for Harry.

It was early evening by the time Harry finally got around to leaving, the conversation having dried up and Harry having had quite enough tea for the rest of the month. They said their goodbyes and they both thanked each other for the company before Harry departed and began the journey back to the castle.

As he passed through the entrance hall, the noise from the great hall was near deafening. It had never seemed so loud from inside, but here, it was surprising and Harry picked up the pace to get through it quickly. Back up the stairs he had come down earlier and along some corridors and he found himself back at the Fat Lady's painting. _Ah, that's a problem. I don't know the password._

"Hey there" he started, giving her the biggest smile he could manage.

"Hello there. Password?" she smiled back.

 _Damn it._ "I... seem to have forgotten it. I don't suppose..."

"You know the rules, Mister Potter. No password, no entry."

"Aww, come on! Just this once?"

"I'm sorry, but no can do. This is a prestigious position, you know. How am I expected...?"

 _To hell with this,_ he thought to himself before just walking away from her mid-rant.

He walked down the corridor just far enough so he thought she wouldn't be able to see him anymore before he stopped and leaned on the wall, crossing his arms. _I guess I'll just wait. It can't be that long before someone comes.  
_

* * *

It was only a few minutes before he was deep in thought again, something that he never really had much time for before now. Life had moved quickly during his Hogwarts tenure, from the death of Quirrell or the slaying of the basilisk all the way through to witnessing Dumbledore's death and the chaos that had soon followed.

Life had moved even faster after that; an entire year had disappeared in seemingly no time as Ron, Hermione and he had broken into Gringotts, had been captured by Snatchers and then escaped the Death Eaters and the destruction of the Horcruxes.

 _I_ ' _ve never had time for myself, never had time for Ginny, and never had time for Sirius. I missed out on so much and maybe that was my fault._ He pictured those he was closest to. _I need to make more of an effort._

 _Assuming I'm not really dead._

He was broken from his reverie by the sound of a girlish giggling, followed by the sound of footsteps. He couldn't see them just yet but there were voices he recognised amongst the gaggle of girls headed his way. When they rounded the nearest corner and saw him, one face in particular stood out in the way she smiled his way: Parvati Patil. With the exception of Hermione, all of the other girls from her dorm were in attendance: Lavender Brown, Fay Dunbar and Sophie Roper.

"You alright, Harry?"

He nodded to the twin.

"What are you doing here?"

"Just waiting for a Gryffindor. Would you believe I forgot the password?" He smiled at them.

Lavender laughed before Parvati playfully slapped her arm to stop the giggling.

"Come on, then. I guess we'll let you in, Neville-I-mean Harry." Lavender threw his way.

The reference to their forgetful house mate and the implied, but playful, insult wasn't lost on him. He looked her in the eye and said "Do you think you could hold my hand? I'm not sure I know the way."

Lavender stopped giggling immediately as she blushed, turning a colour a Weasley could be proud of, something her friends did not fail to notice as they began to laugh at her.

The group made their way into the unpopulated Gryffindor common room, ("Shivery nippers," "Oh, I bet they are!") the girls staking a claim on the best settees while Harry made his way straight to the Boys' dorm stairs.

Parvati called after him, "Harry, Fay wants a kiss!" but he pretended to not hear her. As he climbed the stairs he thought again of how surreal it all was.

 _I talked to Lavender. I think I did a good job not freaking out there._

He entered the dorm room, stripped off the casual clothes he'd been wearing and jumped into bed, not caring about putting on his pyjamas. It was still early; it was likely his dorm mates were still eating dinner, and he could be well asleep by the time anyone got back, and didn't he need it!

 _What happens when I go to sleep?_

 _Do I die? Do I wake up in the forest? Or is this it? Am I stuck here?_

Sleep took him quickly and, as far as he was concerned, the morning came just as quick with its answer to his questions.

* * *

Déjà vu. That was the best way to describe it. Not only living a day as his younger self again but now waking up and staring at the same four-poster bed curtains. The early morning sun did not quite shine through the window yet, just like the day before. The boys sharing the dorm room were all asleep. He would say it was the same day again except this time he woke in just his underwear, no clothing.

 _So this is probably really real, then. Well… Let's make the most of it._

He rolled out of bed, walked across the dorm, grabbed a towel and made off to the Gryffindor boys' showers. Shower time is thinking time, after all, and he had thinking to do.

 _The itinerary then. First, say hi to everybody. You ignored them all yesterday and hid with Hagrid._

 _Second, explain to Ron and Hermione what has happened._

He stopped, blinking for a moment.

 _No, that's a terrible idea. Hermione will either think I'm crazy or believe me and worry like mad. It's important that this be kept a secret and the chances of Ron keeping his mouth shut for four years..._

Harry smiled.

 _If I told him now, he wouldn't last the day._

 _So, second then. Horcruxes? There's the diadem in the room of requirement. It should stay there until I know what to do with it. I suppose I could go get the sword but Dumbledore said he'd write to me when he wanted me to go see him- probably shouldn't bother him before that._

 _Basilisk fang? There's an idea. A trip down to the chamber to grab a couple fangs would go a long way. One at Sirius' place. One here. Seems fine._

 _Third, write to Sirius. Actually, first, write to Sirius. I'm not wasting any time with friends, not again._

He turned off the shower, made his way back past the other boy's rooms to his dorm. He got dressed in full robes and, like before, began the journey down to main hall, this time with his bag full of books over his shoulder.

 _Fourth, Dumbledore's Army. Everyone did so well in the Department of Mysteries before with only a couple of months' practice. Well now we have a year and I'm a better teacher._

 _Fifth, Snape. I probably need to learn Occlumency this time. I'm not going through the headaches again. He's an asshole but so would I be if I were responsible for the death of the only person I've ever loved. How do I build that bridge though?_

Before entering the great hall, he took a little time to grab a timetable off a small table near the door. It had the dates, times and names of all the tests the students were expected to be taking over the next week or so. He had already been given permission to miss them, and that wasn't something he was going to give up easily, but it was still helpful knowing. He still had classes this week, and he would need to know which he wasn't expected to show up for due to conflicting exams.

When he entered the hall for breakfast, it was almost empty. Just a few early risers. Harry took a seat at the table, helped himself to some bacon and toast before retrieving a quill and some ink from his bag. He wrote down what he had planned so far on one piece of parchment before setting it aside to dry and pulling another piece out.

 _Padfoot,_

 _Hope you're doing well._

 _Everything here is good._

 _I know I don't need to say it but keep in touch._

 _I want to tell you about all you've missed._

He really didn't know what to say. What would Sirius like the most? What would make him smile?

 _Give the 'griff a treat from me._

 _Take care and stay safe,_

 _Little Prongs_

Harry imagined Sirius reading it, a smile on his face, maybe a tear in his eye, making Harry tear up a little too. Sirius was the only family Harry had ever had and now he had that again.

He took the letter, rolled it up and stuffed it into his bag. When he was done here he'd make a trip to the Owlery and see another old friend before classes started.

Or tests? He was exempt from those at least but should probably attend his lessons. Ron was already prone to jealousy. The last thing Harry needed to do was to rub in the redhead's face how special Harry's circumstances were by not attending his lessons.

By now the hall was beginning to fill but none of his closest friends had made an appearance just yet. Harry grabbed his things along with some bacon for Hedwig before going to leave the hall. Just before he got to the door Hermione walked in with Ron in tow.

"Harry! Ron's out of the hospital!"

"Congrats, Mate. How you feeling?"

"Thanks. Rough. Harry, you do _not_ want to break your leg." He said with His usual style of emphasis.

"Ron, I had to grow back an arm." He replied, almost laughing.

"You always have to one-up me," Ron said, a smile clear on his face "I'm gonna sit down, now," and with that, he half-hobbled over to the Gryffindor table.

"Harry, are you alright today?" Hermione asked, turning to him. The concern was clear on her face; he had been acting unusual since yesterday and they both knew it.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Look, something has happened…"

"Something?" She interjected.

They were still just inside the hall doorway and students were passing by now in both directions.

"Yeah, something." He leaned into her ear and spoke as quietly as he could while still being heard over the growing din of a hundred hungry teens eating.

"It's a Boy-Who-Lived kind of something."

She gasped and her hand shot up to her mouth.

"Don't worry though. I'm fine. Everything is fine. Dumbledore is on it. As soon as he has information, I'll tell you, okay?"

"Yes, okay. But are you alright?" She looked him in the eye this time, judging his response.

"Yes. Thank you for caring," he replied, without breaking eye contact. "Now, I have a letter to send to our new dog friend."

She just nodded and smiled at that.

"And Hermione? Don't tell Ron just yet. He needs to focus on his tests."

She nodded again, looking over to the table where Ron was sat, already stuffing his face.

"He has a tendency to panic about things. Go get some breakfast, we'll talk later."

With that, they went their separate ways.

* * *

Harry made his way up to the top of the westernmost tower, walked into the Owlery and took a look around. The Owlery had a high, white ceiling that followed the dome of the outside of the tower, the upper reaches ringed in perches and nests for the various birds the school kept on site.

A blur of white descended on him before taking a place on his outstretched arm. Hedwig, the snowy owl, was larger than he remembered. _Maybe it's just that I'm smaller?_ She had wide, round, piercing yellow eyes and a gleaming speckled white coat. She was gentle, too; a normal bird of her size would require a leather harness on the arm to stop her talons digging in but, like most of the animals in the wizarding world, she was unusually intelligent and in her case, incredibly affectionate.

"Hey, girl. How have you been?"

After landing, she gave a small hoot before leaning in and pecking gently at his face, giving him her best effort at a kiss and he stroked her back and neck in return, relishing in the soft, warm feeling of holding her again.

"I've got a treat for you," he said, picking a strip of bacon out from the hand she was perched on. He held the gift in front of her and watched as her predatory nature showed itself. Her eyes widened as she focused in on her prey, she spread her wings slightly for balance and pounced on the unsuspecting crispy victim.

After she had eaten the first piece, he gave her a second and then let his eyes wander around the room looking for a Hogwarts owl. He wouldn't send Hedwig to deliver the letter he had written, He'd been warned from doing that before. She was too easily recognisable and, if intercepted and the letter read, might accidentally lead the way to Sirius, as unlikely as that might be.

He gave Hedwig another stroke, allowing her to nip at his ear once more before encouraging her to return to her spot in the upper reaches of the tower. He called down a large owl with a foul look on its face and strange, tufty-eared feathers. "Hey there," he said, catching the bird on his arm and providing it with its own piece of bacon, the last he had brought.

Holding the beast, he retrieved the letter from his bag one handed, rolled it a little tighter and tied it to the owl's leg using one of the strings that the room provided. "I know the letter is addressed to Padfoot. It's actually for a man named Sirius Black, okay?"

The animal just looked him straight in the eye, looking thoroughly put off, before giving him a slow blink in what he hoped was confirmation. The owl hopped, turning on his arm, before with a few powerful beats of his wings, it was out the nearest window and gone.

Harry looked back up at Hedwig to see her looking, perhaps, less than impressed. "Sorry, girl. You know you're my favourite!" and she gave a little hoot back to him with a little hop.

Before leaving the Owlery, Harry took a knee and had a look at the timetable he had grabbed earlier. The first exam was history of magic.

 _Always look on the brightside, I guess._

Digging through his bag he retrieved the list he had written earlier.

Write Sirius. _Done._

Get Ravenclaw's diadem.

Get basilisk fang.

Reform the D.A.

Learn Occlumency.

 _Well, Occlumency can wait. Last time around it wasn't until Voldemort was back and making moves i started getting visions, so no rush there. That and I do not want to talk to Snape if I can help it._

 _I've got a couple hours. Trip to the chamber? I could grab the diadem first? Two birds with one stone._

 _Probably dangerous to do it alone though. If the diadem gives me any trouble, I'll need help. And if by some fluke I stab myself with a fang, I'd hate to die in the chamber alone. After everything I've survived, that would just be an embarrassing way to go._

 _If the students are all busy then who do I ask? Lupin? He'd do it, sure, but he probably has a class to teach._

 _I'll just get the help I got last time. I need Fawkes._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The Boy-who-lived was feeling pretty good about having two hours to himself. Most of that was going to be spent walking laps of the castle but Harry found, with all that had happened in the last year, he had a new appreciation for free time. He made the trip to the headmaster's tower and the office therein. The password hadn't changed overnight (licorice wand) and Harry was allowed entry. He knocked firmly, there was no answer and after a moment he let himself in.

His reason he was there sat on a stand to the side of Dumbledore's chair, glowing eyes fixed intently on the intruding boy. Fawkes was an imposing image, a blood red bird nearly the size of a swan, radiating a light that made Harry think of a gently burning fireplace.

The Phoenix stared at Harry for a moment before the intensity of his gaze seemed to diminish and he tucked his head away and started grooming himself.

"Hello, Fawkes." The great beast looked at the boy out of the corner of its eye. "If Dumbledore doesn't need you right now i could do with your help."  
Fawkes just watched, unmoving. "You helped me before with the basilisk, you protected me, and I'm wondering if you could do that again? If i could ask for you to come with me? Just for a little while." The phoenix continued to look his way with a steely expression. _Maybe this wasn't such a great idea._

"I'm going back into the chamber to get a basilisk fang, and I'm worried about the poison. Before that I'm going to the seventh floor to get a Cursed object that might be dangerous to handle. Do you think you could take care of me again?"

Fawkes seemed to consider the proposition, tilting its head to one side before, with a beat of its wings, it let out a screeching cry.

"I don't speak Phoenix. If that was a yes then I'll meet you on the seventh floor?" and as if in reply the creature burst into flame and was gone. For a moment Harry started to panic before he noticed there was no ash left behind and no young bird. "Uh, right then. I'll take that as a yes."

* * *

It was a few minutes later when Harry made it across the castle and up to the seventh floor, owing largely to the castle's attempts to waylay him; corridors had moved and the changing staircase had been particularly uncooperative.

Making his way down the Seventh floor corridor he found Fawkes perched on a windowsill, grooming himself quite contently. He eyed Harry as he passed, but then returned to his business.

Harry walked along the small corridor, flanked as it was on either sides by huge pillars that took up most of the space. What wall space there was was taken up by Painting, statues, suits of armour and one very large mural of a group of trolls in tutus learning to dance.

Standing in front of the only blank space of wall in the corridor Harry closed His eyes.  
 _I need a place to hide something. I need a place to hide something. I need a place to...  
_ Opening His eyes He saw a door that wasn't there before. Simple, brown, unassuming. Exactly the kind of place you'd want to hide something in.

Opening the door he looked in and saw the chaotic mess that was the inside of this particular version of the room of requirement. "Fawkes?" He called behind him and the great bird answered with a _caw!_ before taking wing, flying down the corridor, through the door and out into the large, high ceilinged room that was the room of requirement's hiding room.

The room was filled with towering piles of discarded and mostly broken objects, ranging from old clothes and books to furniture and paintings. There was a unfathomably large number of destroyed cauldrons here, multiple piles of them littered the room.

Harry walked through the room, taking a look at the items that had been discarded through the years. The room of requirement wasn't far from the gryffindor dorms and assuming the dorms don't move, which they might given everything else in Hogwarts seemed to, most of the items were probably left here by gryffindors from years past.

Upon reaching the furthest end of the impossibly large room Harry stood before a mounded pile of carelessly discarded rubbish. Atop the pile sat a white, faceless stone bust and near that, a small silver crown, almost a tiara. In a previous visit he'd moved the statuette and placed the diadem atop it as a marker for where he left a potions book.

"Accio Diadem" It didn't move, not even a wobble.  
"Alright then. Fine." He looked up at the pile. If he couldn't call it down to him he'd have to go up and get it. He placed his foot on a broken door towards the bottom of the pile ( _how and why is there a door here? who needs to hide a door?!)_ and the whole tower wobbled precariously.

Drawing his wand he chanted "Adepto Adhesit!" placing the sticking charm on everything he could see, from the bottom to the top of the pile. He placed his foot on the door again and nothing moved. He jumped on it, stamping his feet on it and the stack held steady.

He climbed to the top and reached out to take the diadem. "Fawkes? You've got your eye on me, yeah?" He couldn't see the bird but a echoing screech answered the question. _Alright, here goes nothing._

He climbed up the stack a little, reached up and grabbed the crown, picking it up in a single motion. He waited a moment. Nothing happened. No voices, no shadowy images.

 _Well, finally some good news for once._

He made his way back to the entrance of the room, held the door open to allow Fawkes to make His exit and then followed him out into the corridor, diadem in hand. "Alright, Fawkes. Chamber of secrets next. You remember where that is?"

The giant, red bird gave him an glare that both told him _Yes, I know where it is_ and also _I think You're an idiot for asking_ before once again bursting into flame and disappearing.

* * *

Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was a miserable place; damp, damaged and unclean. It apparently hadn't been maintained in something like 60 years although with Myrtle spending most of Her time here it was hardly a wonder. No one really liked dealing with her, as sad as that was, and the idea of renovating this room with her wailing away didn't strike Harry as particularly fun. Mercifully, Myrtle was absent. _Perhaps stalking the prefect's bathroom again?_

Harry had made his way across the school without incident, stashing the crown in his robes. Along the way he took a look at the time- He'd used up nearly half the time he had already and he still had to get in and out of here yet, and probably make a trip to the gryffindor tower to stash the fangs he was here to collect.

The marble pillar that housed the sinks for the bathroom sat at one end, and on one of the taps a small snake had been carved. Harry looked at it and tried to imagine it was real before speaking to it "open". The word came out, instead of english, as a quiet hiss and the snake leapt to life, the marble moved and gave way. The sinks slipped across each other, the marble shifting and moving until it all dropped away into the floor leaving only a tunnel in the floor.

Still picturing the snake harry hissed "Can i have stairs this time?". If the chamber heard his request, there was no sign. "Fine then." he said to himself before jumping down the pipe.

Coming down the pipe the second time was much more fun than the first. For one, Harry knew it was safe and two, there was no one's life in immediate danger and so He let himself enjoy the experience. Landing in a dusty mess at the bottom he straightened himself out before taking a look at the floor. _Oh, right, the bones. Great._ Bones, mostly human, littered the floor and cracked under heel as Harry stood. _And i hope Fawkes doesn't mind carrying me again. I'm not getting back up there._

A short walk and harry came back to the large snake door. "Open" he commanded, and it did, the entwined snakes that made up the facade shifting to allow the door to open. Behind it, a raised platform and a ladder down to the chamber proper. Harry climbed down the ladder as Fawkes flew in overhead, the two of them making their way down to flooded platform that made up the battlefield from Harry's previous visit here.

The chamber was a dark place, almost entirely flooded, and with a strange green hue to light that seemed to emanate from nowhere in particular. Massive snake headed statues lined the chamber down both sides, flanking the main platform that ran its length, the only part that now sat above the apparently rising water level.

At the end of the platform was the basilisk, lying where it had died, perfectly preserved even in the dirty, wet environment. Harry walked over to it and took a good look. He hadn't really had time to appreciate what it was he was looking at before but now he was here it was amazing. From a distance the beast looked like any other snake but as He got closer he saw that instead of scales it had a thick, almost stoney skin, blackened and rough. Its fangs weren't normal either- it had a full set of teeth that reached to the back of its mouth.

 _If it wasn't a legendary, 100ft long, monstrous killing machine it would almost be beautiful._

Now, he needed to pull out a couple teeth and put them in something. He didn't want these hyper lethal weapons just bouncing around his bag so he'd need to at least wrap them up thoroughly. It was something he hadn't considered before reaching the chamber and he hadn't brought anything. Well, he technically knew how to do a summoning charm, although his firebolt had flown to him rather than instantly appearing at his side. Harry drew his wand and focused for a moment. With a flick, he summoned some of his old hand me down clothes from his trunk in gryffindor tower. A bundle of clothes appeared in mid air before him and dropped limply to the ground. Harry quietly revelled in his success before bending down and laying them open on the floor.

Standing, he took one deep breath before reaching in to the creatures maw and reaching into the creature's maw. All of the teeth Harry could see were tipped in a mix of purple and greenish fluids. Carefully, he grabbed the nearest one with his strongest grip before giving it a pull. It came away from the flesh easier than he would have expected, and after extracting his hand, knelt down to wrap the tooth first in a shirt. The shirt immediately started changing colour on contact with the poison so he added another, before wrapping the bundle in an ancient pair of jeans.

He watched the bundle for a moment and when it didn't start smoking or melting he stashed the fang at the bottom of his bag, under his books. Hopefully the fang wouldnt turn everything it touched into a toxic mess.

 _Right, now the diadem._ Looking at it, it didn't seem particularly special. It was a lovely band of silver, etched around the back were the words " _Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure"_ and it was at least as valuable as anything Harry had ever touched in his life, but it lacked the ornamentation of the other Founder's relics.

Gryffindor's sword had Rubies in the hilt and was forged in gold. Hufflepuffs cup was pure gold, painstakingly etched with almost microscopic script and Slytherin's locket was cast gold and silver, lined with tiny jewels. The crown however was just silver, a dulled almost grey band. In comparison is seemed so underwhelming although in practise probably much more valuable, prior to Voldemort's interfering with it.

Harry stood with it in it hand and looked back to the basilisk. He reached out, gave another tooth a sharp pull and then checked the chamber for Fawkes. Last time around cursed fire had consumed the crown and so Harry had escaped any backlash from its destruction. Now, it would have to be destroyed like the rest, and the horcruxes each had special ways to voice their displeasure.

He threw one last look in Fawkes' direction which was met with the phoenix's intense stare before holding the fang above the diadem and stabbing down. He stopped. Something caught his eye.

At the far end of the chamber, carved into the wall, was a round stone face, covered in snakes. Depending on how you looked it was either in roaring triumph or screaming terror. The mouth was wide and round and had been the place the basilisk has crawled from. Through it harry could see a glint of gold far inside.

 _This is probably going to be the last time I'm down here and might be the last time anyone comes down here before it floods._ He knew he was procrastinating on the task at hand, but he had time, right?

Harry made his way around the basilisk corpse and through the chamber to the bottom of the stone face. The face was raised off the ground, sitting atop a rough pile of stone, and stairs had been carved each side up to it. They were slimy with the damp and Harry took his time climbing them.

Looking into the mouth he could see a metal ring around the inside edge and a large space on one side that looked vaguely like a coin slot. _Close_ Harry hissed at it and a hidden door obliged, a large round metal disk sliding into view to seal the entrance, a coiled snake eating its tail embossed on the surface.

 _Open_ and once again the door obeyed, retreating back into the stone. A tunnel stretched off behind it, smooth either by design or by use Harry couldn't tell, and it was almost pitch black for quite a distance, maybe fifty metres, but at the far end a green light could be seen and, even from here, Harry could see it was flickering.

Moving both the crown and the diadem into one hand, which having been so distracted had just realised he was still carrying, He pulled his wand with his free hand and lit the tunnel with _lumos_ then did his best to increase the intensity of the light. Even though the tunnel was damp and seemingly shined with a polished surface it refused Harry's attempts to brighten it; the dark seemed stained into the stone.

Harry moved on anyway, cancelling the spell but keeping his wand at the ready. A screech behind him made him jump before he turned and saw Fawkes had followed him to the tunnel's mouth. The tunnel wasn't large enough for fawkes' wingspan and so he hopped along instead, occasionally making irritated chirping noises. The two companions eventually reached the end of the tunnel, coming out into a large, circular, high ceilinged room.

The walls were rough stone, permeated by the same gloom as the rest of the chamber, and infront of harry lay a huge, round stone pit. It was deep enough that if Harry fell in he would need Fawkes help to get back out and the bottom was filled with the crushed leftovers of past snake malts and along the far end lay a skeleton that was of a familiar shape.

It was about half the length of the basilisk outside, and less than half the width and height, but the fangs and shape were unmistakable. Another basilisk had once lived here and it was clear it had been dead long enough to completely decompose. The basilisk outside had been dead for more than a year and didn't even smell yet so how long ago this one had died Harry could only guess.

Harry took a step towards the pit for a better look before a terror like he had never known gripped his chest. A image suddenly jumped to mind of being a prey animal staring a predator in the eyes. Harry took a step back automatically and felt better immediately. Some instinctual part of him must know that pit was beyond lethal and to touch it was to die. Maybe not even Fawkes could protect against the hundreds of years of built up venom and filth.

The pit was ringed by a platform wide enough to safely walk around, and on the far side the path opened into a square platform, in the middle of which sat what could only be described as a throne, a huge chair carved out of the stone below it. Flanked either side by bookcases, the books on which had rotted in the wet, and behind the bookcases were the sources of the lights.

Carefully picking his way around the basilisk pit, he walked around the bookcases to be confronted with a number of cauldrons. The green lights he had seen earlier were enchanted flames, flickering below the pots, although only two of the four were lit. The centre two had no flames and atop a course, yellow sand sat large, thick pieces of broken shell.

The eggs that the shells had once been were black, rough and stonelike in texture, from what Harry could see. Another egg, still intact, sat in another cauldron, buried almost to the tip. Like the others, it was roughly the size of a watermelon. Two broken eggs and two basilisk corpses; the last black egg was obviously another basilisk.  
In the fourth cauldron sat something else. Only buried half way up, the sand much finer and bright white, lay a bright green egg, smaller than the others by quite some amount. It shimmered slightly in the light and reflected and sparkled like fine jewels.

Looking back to the throne Harry saw that a book sat in it, glowing slightly with a protective charm, seemingly the only book out of more than a hundred that had survived the damp. Harry unshouldered his bag and placed it at the bottom of the throne, put the diadem and fang next to it and, after calling Fawkes into the chamber which the phoenix refused with an echoing screech, Harry picked up the book and looked at it.

It was a small book, only an inch think, slightly larger than his hand, and bound in red leather. It was full of notes, old pieces of parchment tucked inside particular pages. The first line of text on the front cover was written in gold but the rest was just inked on.

Several languages were in appearance on just the cover, one an old, old english, another that looked arabic or something similar, a couple others that Harry wasn't even going to attempt to place, but the last stood out. The long fine, winding script moved and waved as he looked at it and after a moment moved into words he could understand, although definitely not in an alphabet he recognized.

" _In My blood runs power, pride and ambition. It will be my progeny that purifies the earth and their vengeance will be terrible. Enemies of the Heirs beware."_

Harry read it in wonder and then, after a moment, snorted. _Slytherin may have been a powerful wizard but he was a terrible fortune teller. There was no purification, two basilisks are dead, the chamber of secrets is gonna flood entirely soon and the last legitimate heir would probably never father children even if he lived forever._

The book shook slightly before opening on its own in Harry's hand. It flicked through page after page before stopping somewhere near the middle. In the centre of the right hand page was that same flowing script. He watched as it waved again before settling in a way he could read.

" _Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure" she says. In her foolishness she has left her wit in her crown but i keep power clenched in my fist. Wit is a treasure, but strength is beyond value."_

Harry stared at the book for a moment before looking down at the diadem at his feet. _If it was slytherin who wrote this then he was a lunatic. No wonder voldemort is so messed up if this is the guy he worships as a hero._

Harry bent over and put the leather bound book in his bag, wedging it between two larger textbooks so it wouldn't open and spill the notes it contained, before straightening and looking back down at the diadem for a while. As he did he could hear something, like he had what seemed like a lifetime earlier. Two voices. One that same crying, wailing horrific noise that all of the horcruxes made if you gave them too much attention.

There was a second voice too. Not wailing in pain and horror but singing with a high pitched, clarion clarity. She was crying too, the song was not a happy one. Harry reached down and picked up the crown and held it for a moment before taking a seat on the throne.

A stupid, ridiculous, near suicidal idea jumped to Harry's head and he knew as soon as he thought of it he was going to do it. He looked over at Fawkes again, who was still sitting in the tunnel mouth watching him intently, and He said "Fawkes, take care of me, yeah?" Fawkes gave a long, slow blink and the hint of a nod in reply.

Slowly, Harry raised the crown and put it on his head. For a moment his scar flared in that old, familiar pain but then faded room went quiet, the sounds of dripping water becoming distant. The smell of the rot and damp faded and the image of burning, red eyes swam into vision. They were red and snake-like and glared at him with a predatory gleam.

"Hello, Tom"

" _Lord Voldemort, to you"_

* * *

 **Thank you for reading. Any comments and feedback are welcome and appreciated.  
I'm currently looking for a beta reader, so if anyone is interested message me. A special thank you goes out to Ybe.**


	4. Chapter 4

"Hello, Tom" Harry said, as clear and as confident as he could make his voice sound.  
 _"Voldemort, to You"_ replied a quiet voice, all hissing and venom. Harry didn't so much hear the words as feel them, the words spoken directly into His mind. He looked at Fawkes to make sure the phoenix was still staring his way.

"No, Lord, then?"  
 _"If you are here to play word games then take the crown off and leave me be. I have no time for word games with petulant children"_ the voice was definitely the voice of voldemort but there was something about it immediately different. It was somehow less threatening.

"Voldemort, then." Harry began, then ran out of words. _Why did i do this?  
"Why are you here? Why are you wearing the diadem? How did you find it?"  
_"I'm in the chamber to retrieve something from it, something i left when i last visited"  
 _"You have visited the chamber before?"_ The Voldemort voice was surprised but calm, measured. The anger he had shown before was rapidly fading. _  
_"Yes, i have been here before."  
 _"So_ you _are the new heir of slytherin? A Child of mine, perhaps?"_

The thought of that ran a shiver down Harry's back. _What would the child of a monster like that even look like?_

" _Not my child then, no, but you know what I am. My nature"  
_ Harry thought a moment before answering. _If i tell the diadem anything will Voldemort find out?  
"No, He will not. We have been isolated from each other since the ritual"  
_"Wait. He? Not I? But You're the same man."  
 _"No, We are not. Like a magical painting i am more of an image of the man as he stood, a copy frozen in time. I do not share his mind and we cannot communicate. Unlike the paintings though, that must be taught by their image who they are, I am a true recreation of his mind at the moment we seperated."  
_ Harry leaned back into a slouch. The two were the same once but now aren't. A thought occurred.

"You don't know who I am, do You?"  
 _"No."  
_ "Then why are you telling me all this?"  
 _"It is in the diadem's nature to impart wisdom to those who wear it. I am here, and so is what was here before, and so You may ask and I will tell, if i can. It is an unintended consequence of choosing the crown to be my vessel."_ it stated, matter-of-fact.

"That is very unlike the Voldemort i know."  
 _"As i said, I am but a fragment of the whole. With the creation of the horcruxes a piece of the soul must be left behind and with it a piece of the character, the Man.  
When i created the first I left behind my childhood, My years at Hogwarts, My anger at the treatment i had received. When I left Hogwarts i was no longer Tom Riddle, I was Voldemort, and Tom was forever consigned to the book."  
_"So who are you then? What did He leave behind when he created you?"  
 _"His regrets. His resentment at his failures."  
_ "What failures?"  
The voice made a noise, something like a sigh. The horcrux took a moment, seemingly to gather it's thoughts, before it spoke in a measured voice. _  
"Power is everything, Boy. Power is the mechanism through which the world changes and it comes in many forms. Political, social, physical, mental. I spent a great deal of time accruing what i could of each but in our world magic is the real power._

 _I bent myself to the task of becoming the most powerful sorcerer that ever lived. I would be an emperor. I would be strong. I would have armies and all of the magical power in the world would one day be mine but in order to become a god one must first cast off their mortality. How was i to learn everything the world had to teach if i had but a century to live in it?_

 _And so i sought immortality, and with the help of several unwitting fools i learnt what i needed to know. I murdered an innocent, abandoning my humanity and becoming something so much more than just a man. No one was able to tell me of the price i would come to pay, though."_

It was unsettling to hear Voldemort's voice speak like this. Harry had heard him gloat over his victories, heard him rage and murder but never had he heard a wisp of sadness. This voice seemed almost wistful.

"What price?"  
 _"Nobody had really experimented in horcruxes before, as dark and twisting as they are even the most power hungry of tyrants in the past shied away from their full potential. But not I. I boldly went forward, my ambition would not wait, and i created them and they changed me._

 _All power was supposed to be mine. As far as i was concerned it was my birthright, finding out i was Slytherin's heir cemented that, but it was only after i had created the fourth of my devices that i understood the terrible price i had paid, something none of my forebears had encountered."_

The voice stopped again. Harry imagined if it had lungs it would have taken a deep breath. The red eyes Harry could see looked away from him.

" _There are powerful magics in the world, old magics, that can be tapped into if the circumstance is correct. These do not come from our bodies, like our spells do, but from outside in the magical places in the world. As we use a wand to channel our inner magic to cast spells so too can we use ourselves as a wand to cast spells with the world's magic._

 _As i created more and more horcrux my power grew. I stopped sleeping, I could choose not to eat or drink, i could focus for days at a time on learning and my spellcraft grew to levels the world had never seen._

 _Unfortunately, this world magic is something you might call nature or purity. It requires something untainted to be the locus for the magics and I had corrupted my body, left myself twisted, and this most ancient and powerful of magics was forever lost to me._

 _It was years before i found out, and as my understanding of this power grew so too did my grief. Regret was not something i had experienced before and so when it came time for me to make the next horcrux, to encapsulate another part of myself, I knew what part that would be._

 _I locked away the knowledge of what i had lost while also consigning my regrets away. Never again would i look back on that particular failure. My eyes would be fixed firmly in the future._

 _Ironic, isn't it, that my insatiable quest for power would be the very reason there were powers i would never possess?"_

"Why are you telling me all this?"  
 _"It is in the nature of the crown to tell."  
_ "No, why this in particular?"  
 _"Because I am the greatest wizard that ever lived and this is my greatest failing. What more potent a lesson could i ever pass on to another?"_

There was a brief moment while Harry considered what he had heard. As absurd as it was to be learning anything from Voldemort there was a lesson to be learnt here.

"So what's the lesson?"  
 _"Do not chase your ideals blindly. There are a thousand paths to success and you must walk them all to truly be great."  
_ "I'm not sure we agree on what constitutes greatness" Harry snarked.  
 _"Greatness is the wielding of power, boy, do not think otherwise. If you wish to make the world a better place there will be those who oppose you. They are obstacles that must be defeated. Whether with words, or strategy, or violence, all is power._

 _If you wish to be a king that is power.  
If you wish to dethrone a monarch that is power._

 _When you convince someone to follow you into difficulty, when you stand united in a cause, that is power.  
When you protect those you love from the dangers of the world you will need power in it's every form._

 _There is only power and those too weak to seek it.  
Do not be a spectator in your own life. Do not allow others to manipulate you. You must hold the power if you wish to see your dreams fulfilled."_

There was another silence, longer this time. Harry sat with his eyes closed as he took everything in. This wasn't the voldemort he had met before, not at all.

" _So I have told you much. Now tell me something. Who are you?"  
_ "Harry potter"  
 _"And why are you here? Why do you have the diadem?"  
"_I have the diadem because I know what it is. I'm here to destroy it."  
 _"With a basilisk fang, I suppose? Clever. I thought i had destroyed enough of the knowledge of the horcrux that they would be invincible, that their weaknesses would be impossible to discover. Just another failure, it would seem. Harry potter, I am nothing but my regrets. I have been trapped in here for years reliving my mistakes. Destroying me would be a mercy. But i have one request."  
_ "You don't get to ask anything from me." Harry interjected, but the horcrux continued anyway.  
 _"When you destroy me try to save the diadem. The only thing I ever cared for aside from myself was Hogwarts and I stole from Her. If I am going to die return the diadem."  
_ "I can't. I've destroyed horcruxes before and they all disappeared."  
 _"Scratch the surface and work the poison in. Banish the poison the moment I die. I will go without a fight and do what i can to make it easy, though what i can achieve here is limited. After, the School may be able to repair any damage to the crown."  
_ "Why are you helping me?"  
 _"This has been a terrible existence and I would be glad to see it end. Such a tiny fragment of a whole should never remain conscious, it is torturous. There is no reason for me to take the diadem with me when i am destroyed. I am full of sorrow, not spite."_

There was genuine pain and sadness there now. _Voldemort doesn't deserve mercy but this will be best for everyone_. With that, Harry reached down and picked up the basilisk fang. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the cauldrons and the green egg that sat in one.

"Do you know what's in the green egg?"  
 _"An old species. Esmeralda vipera Magna. It was hunted near to extinction for it's scales long before the time of Slytherin. Possibly the last of its kind."  
_ "The last? You mean it's still alive?"  
 _"It is deeply magical. Like the Basilisk or Piasea it is eternal. It should wake if kept warm and called upon. You are a parseltongue, yes?"_ Harry nodded his agreement, before thinking that maybe the crown couldn't see him.  
" _Good. Maybe you can save the species and some good will come of this place."  
_ "You don't like the chamber?"  
 _"Harry"_ The voice was a hissing whisper again, and anger crept into the voice for the first time since they began to speak. " _Without the basilisk i might never would have killed. The Warren girl's death was easy. The first step should be the hardest, the difficulty should slow you down. It is the ease that was to blame for my lack of preparation. If I had had more time maybe i would have learnt of the weaknesses of the horcrux and changed my mind but in the moment it was simply handed to me."  
_ "And you killed the first time you were able to? You're a monster."  
 _"It is easy to use words to distance ourselves from the distasteful. If you think that you could never do what I have done then you do not know yourself well enough. Anyone could go where I have been."  
_ With that, Harry took the crown off, He had heard enough. The red eyes faded from view and room swam back into vision. He placed the crown on the stone armrest of the throne before hovering the fang above it. The voice spoke to him one last time, barely more than a whisper now.

" _Why are you hunting my horcrux? Who am I to you?"  
_ "You killed my parents." and Harry pressed the fang to the metal.

The poison was quick to do its work, spreading rapidly across the surface before sinking in and turning the flat surfaces bubbly. A familiar thick, black gas began to leak from below the crown, and Harry jumped out of the chair to avoid making contact with it before continuing to work the fang in. There was no visions this time, no horrid images of death or threats or bribes. The crown began to sag under its own weight as the poison began to undermine the metalwork. Then Voldemort's voice cried out in pain before being instantly silenced. Harry removed the fang and flicked his wand, casting a vanishing spell over the pooling mess of metal and poison.

What was left behind of the diadem was even duller than it had been before, now twisted and misshapen but still recognisable. The voice was right though, this might still be salvageable.

Harry took in and then released a deep breath, and looked around. Fawkes still sat a distance away, carefully monitoring Harry's health. He took the crown, wrapped it in a piece of parchment he retrieved from his bag, and placed it in a front pocket before tossing the fang into the basilisk pit and pocketing his wand.

Harry collected his things before looking back to the two remaining eggs that sat behind the throne. The last basilisk egg could stay here, _let the rising water levels destroy it in years to come_ Harry thought, and with a flick extinguished the flame keeping the black egg warm.

Turning to the other his mind replayed the words " _last of it kind. It should wake if kept warm and called upon"_ before using a shrinking charm on the cauldron assembly, the flame, egg and pot shrinking small enough to carry.

A quick _leviosa_ charm on the cauldron and He was on His way, around the pit, back out through the tunnel down the stairs and out of the chamber proper with the shining green egg in hand.

* * *

"Thank you, Fawkes. You've been a great help." Harry said to the bird, back in Myrtle's bathroom. Fawkes gave him a look that could melt steel, before leaning in, nuzzling his hand a little and then disappearing in a burst of flame.

Harry turned to the prize he had retrieved from the chamber and gave it a quick look. Where was he going to take it? _Yeah, I'll just put it next to my bed. "Hey Harry, where did you get this extremely valuable and incredibly ancient snake egg from?" No, thanks._

The answer he realised was obvious, although it was a bit of effort. He reached into his bag, grabbed the invisibility cloak and threw it over the floating cauldron and it disappeared completely. He reached out and grabbed one of the supporting arms for it, it would not be good to lose it in the castle somewhere and not be able to find it again, and pulled it close enough that he could put His hand in His pocket and just have a finger wrapped around it with the whole assembly floating invisibly beside him.

The trip passed, fortunately, without incident and soon he found himself back at the room of requirement. _I need a place to hide some…_ The door appeared. Harry walked in, flicked the cloak off the cauldron and egg and placed them down just inside the door before restoring them to full size. He, as gently as possible, placed his hand on the egg to find it was warm to the touch and smoother than it looked. He smiled at it for a moment before covering the egg in the cloak again and turning to leave.

* * *

The room of requirement was about as far away from the gryffindor common room as it was anywhere else and so he headed that way. The tunnel was filthy and his cloak needed changing but also He had no idea what the time was. If he had made good time then He would have been quick enough to get to class with plenty of time to spare but a foray into new areas of the chamber and a 20 minute chat threw that idea out the window.

 _That's surreal, now that I think about it. It should be like any normal day and I just had a conversation with possibly the most dangerous man that has ever lived._ The thought sent a shiver down His spine.

 _Just another day in the life of the boy-who-lived. God, i hate being me sometimes. Neville doesn't have to deal with this shit._

Only a few minutes later He was inside the common room and taking a look at the grandfather clock just inside the door was quite happy to see he'd missed his class. There was another test to take a little later, Herbology, which overlapped with the final lesson of the day and he would be skipping that and that was that for the day.

"Harry!" came a call from one of the seating areas. One of the weasley twins was waving his way.  
"Just a sec, let me drop off my stuff." Harry replied, before marching across the common room and bolting up the stairs. Entering his room at a near running pace He was relieved but unsurprised to find it unoccupied. He threw his bag on the bed before opening it up and beginning the process of retrieving items.

He put his books on his bed in a pile first, then fished out the wrapped up basilisk fang below it. He stashed the fang in the part of his trunk he kept his valuables in with the books following after. Lastly, he fished the diadem out of his bag and gave it a quick look over. It had lost some of the purple hue it had earlier and there was no smell or residue left behind from the basilisk venom.

He stashes the crown away and retrieved his watch from the same spot in the trunk, something He wished He had thought to grab that morning.

He threw his cloak on the floor, the house elves would take care of that, and took a seat on his bed and thought back to what had just transpired.  
" _If you think that you could never do what I have done then you do not know yourself well enough."_

 _Bollocks. I'll never be like that._ But a memory jumped to mind of the events inside the department of mysteries, when he tried torturing a woman when a stunning spell would have worked fine. Bellatrix Lestrange had fallen to the floor screaming, before turning and laughing at him. He probably would have hurt or killed her if Voldemort and Dumbledore hadn't have chosen that moment to intervene.

" _It is easy to use words to distance ourselves from the distasteful.  
Anyone could go where I have been"  
_It was a slippery slope for sure. He found looking back that the only thing He regretted is that both Voldemort and Bellatrix got away. He stood, took a deep breath before making his way back downstairs to the common room. With Hermione and Ron either in exams or a class Harry had some time to burn so he walked over to the Twins.

They were sitting with an unimpressed looking Angelina Johnson, who shifted over on the couch she was sitting on to make room for Harry having seen Him coming.  
"You alright mate?" Asked George, as Fred continued with what he was saying.  
"...a simple push of the button and you can turn the walls sticky!"  
"Yes, but why?" replied Angelina, arms crossed.  
"I uh… I don't really know. We haven't really considered it's purpose yet."  
"No, forget it. Get someone else."  
"But you're the only one here good at runes that would even consider…" Fred began to beg.  
"I've considered, and you can piss off. I'm not getting in trouble when this explodes or releases a toxic gas like last time."

She stood up, huffed, and left. The three boys watched Her go before turning back to each other.

"She'll come round, She always does." Said a very confident sounding George.  
"Toxic gas?" Harry asked, eyebrow raised.  
"Yeah. Made a paper tag that was meant to stink a room out after you say a spell. Turns out the gasses we used weren't exactly healthy." Fred answered with a smile.  
"2 Slytherins from 6th year were hospitalised." George said, rather less happy about the result.  
"Right. You know the map you gave me?"  
"Ah, the marauders. What Heroes." Fred said, dreamily.  
"Men such as us can only dream." George continued, leaning back and staring off into the distance.  
"Can you guys keep a secret?" The twins snapped out of their revelry immediately, leaning in. "You know we can, Harry."  
"I've met them. The 3 that are still alive."  
"Really?" Fred's eyes lit up and his jaw dropped.  
"Total secrecy? Swear?"

The twins looked at each other and then back to Harry "We swear" they said in unison.  
"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs? My Dad was Prongs. Professor Lupin is Moony"  
"Because He's a werewolf?" George inquired, wide eyed.  
"Yeah, because...wait, you know?"  
"Yeah, Everyone knows. He left yesterday. Didn't anyone tell you?"  
"No, I kinda took a day off from socialising. Shit"  
"So He was a friend of Your Dad's?"  
"Yeah, My Dad was an animagus. He was a stag and used to keep Lupin out of trouble."  
"Prongs, yeah. So, Wormtail and Padfoot?"  
"Padfoot is Sirius Black.." George gave a tiny gasp, Fred remained passive. "And Wormtail is Peter Pettigrew."  
"Right. So what does that mean, then? Did Sirius kill anyone?"  
"Cus he was Ron's rat, right?"

Harry let out a deep sigh, exasperated.  
"Ron couldn't keep that to himself for even one day, then?" Harry asked.  
"Nah, told us this morning." Fred smiled again.  
"Yeah, Looks like It was Peter who killed the muggles and escaped leaving Sirius to take the blame."  
"So… what about you then?" George asked, giving him a softer look than he had been wearing. "What's this mean for you?"

Looking at His face Harry picked up his meaning.  
"Peter was secret keeper for My parents. They're dead because of him."  
"Merlin…" Fred breathed, leaning back.  
"You found this out when?"

 _4 years ago.  
_ "2 nights ago."  
"Are you ok, mate?" George asked. There was genuine tenderness in his voice.  
"Yeah, man. I'm good. Thanks for asking."  
"Hey, it's no problem…" He was interrupted by the common room door opening and the first students returning from the days exams. Hermione entered followed by Ron, She spotted the 3 boys sitting together and began to make her way over. "You're like a brother to us, ok? So no getting into trouble without us in future. It's what we're good at." George finished. Fred agreed, nodding along.

"Hello boys." Hermione greeted them, taking the seat next to Harry. Ron joined a moment later, having grabbed an additional chair from the next table. "Harry, Did you not go to any exams today?" She whispered into His ear. He shook his head. She gasped, scandalised.

The common room quickly filled up, the days exams done with. One older student walked their way carrying a note and made eye contact with Harry "Hey, Dumbledore wanted me to give you this."  
"Thanks" Harry said, taking it.  
"News?" Hermione quizzed, leaning in to see what He had been Handed.

Harry opened the note. It read _Tomorrow, 9 o'clock._

"Hopefully."

* * *

 **Thank you for reading. Any comments and feedback are welcome and appreciated.  
I'm currently looking for a beta reader, so if anyone is interested message me. A special thank you goes out to Ybe.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you for reading. Any comments and feedback are welcome and appreciated.  
I'm currently looking for a beta reader, so if anyone is interested message me.**

* * *

Idle chatter was doing little to distract Harry's thoughts from his recent journey to the chamber of secrets. His mind kept wandering back to the conversation he had had with the diadem and the prize he had rescued from the hidden room. He knew he could hatch the egg at a moment's notice but before he did he'd get an expert opinion on in. Hermione was either an expert already or would be once he'd convinced her to help, he knew. So when dinner time rolled around and the group, Harry, Hermione, Ron and the weasley twins, all set off towards the great hall Harry took his moment to talk to her.

He took hold of her wrist and gently pulled, slowing them down and making some space between them and the others. Harry took a look around conspiratorially before leaning over.  
"Its exam week. Whatever it is it can wait." Hermione interjected. She did not look amused.  
"Aww come on, don't be like that. It's interesting, I swear."  
"I know you, Harry. Interesting is being chased through a forest by a werewolf or fighting dementors."  
"No, actually interesting. Just a little mystery."

She went to reply before she stopped walking, placed her hands on her hips and looked His way.  
"Alright, what is it?"  
"I _may_ have found something special that I need your help with."  
"And this special something, is it dangerous?"  
"Could be, I genuinely don't know. Which is why I need your help."

Harry saw Her smile to Herself before adding "I took a trip down to the Chamber of secrets today."  
"WHAT?!" She shouted at His face.  
Ron and the Twins stopped and looked back at the two. "You guys alright?" Ron said, after a moment had passed. Hermione looked at Ron and nodded and that was good enough for the group who turned and resumed their journey.

"Why did you go down there again?" Hermione hissed at Harry once the others had lost interest.  
"Needed to get a basilisk fang. I'll explain why later" He said with a smile, holding his hands up in surrender when she shot him a murderous look. "Anyway, I found something while i was down there, took it, and hid it."  
"What was it? Where did you put it?" The bossy Hermione came out this time, more than a hint of a demand in Her voice.  
"Surprise and a surprise. I'll show you after dinner if You're quick."

This time when She looked at Him He knew He had gone far enough. She looked furious.  
"Relax, Hermione. It's nothing too bad, You'll see." Her face didn't relax in the least.

* * *

Dinner was done with at record pace, Hermione devouring the small portion She had laid out for herself so quick that Harry had to leave half a plate of food behind when She stood to leave, throwing Him a look that demanded He follow.

He gave the collected Weasleys an apologetic shrug before chasing Hermione out of the hall.  
"Right. Where are we going?" She demanded.  
"Seventh floor." She raised an eyebrow at that, but turned and marched away from him.

She consumed the distance in record time, Harry hot on Her heels, and came to a stop in the cramped corridor that made up the top floor of the castle.  
"Where?" She demanded again.  
"Hermione, chill out. Now, do You trust Me?"  
"Not when You're being so evasive, no." She crossed Her arms across her chest.  
"Come over here" He led her to the tapestry of Barnabas the barmy. "Now, close Your eyes."

The look she gave Him could have scared a dragon.  
"Come on, Hermione. Really. Close them." And She did with a huff. "Now say out loud, 3 times, I need somewhere to hide something." She opened Her eyes and gave Him Her best scowl.  
"Harry, if this is some kind of prank…"  
"On our friendship, i swear it's not."

She turned back to the tapestry, closed her eyes and recited the words 3 times then turned back to Harry.  
"So what was that meant to...Oh!" She gasped as she saw the unassuming door that hadn't been there a moment previously. "Harry potter, how long have you known this was here?"  
He smiled at Her, Her anger had dissipated as fast as it had appeared.  
"For a day or two, i suppose." He answered. _Is that the truth or isn't it? Is a half truth dishonest?_ "Go on then, take a look."

She looked his way, unsure, before stepping forward and opening the door. She took a deep breath in wonder as she walked into the impossible room. It was easily larger than any room in the castle had any right to be and was still filled with the same piles of garbage.

"This is the room of requirement. You asked it for a place to hide something and that's what you got. But you can ask it for anything. Somewhere to hide, a toilet, a quiet place to read. Ask for anything and the room will provide."  
"This is amazing, Harry." She stepped further into the room, looking around. Her mouth was wide open as she took a good look at the stacks of random items and Harry could see she was already itching to go rootling through the piles to see what was here.  
"This is what I needed your help with." She turned to him as he reached into thin air, grabbed nothing, and pulled. The invisibility cloak made itself visible as it moved and revealed the cauldron and egg hidden below, still atop the slowly burning green flame.

"What i found down in the chamber were a number of eggs. 2 were basilisk eggs that had hatched…" the look of terror that appeared on Hermione's face realised how bad what he had just said were "but there's two dead basilisks down there so that's not a problem. There was a third basilisk egg still intact which i left down there." He gestured towards the egg. "And then there was this. It's not a basilisk, I don't think, and it's not something i recognise so I thought I'd take it and get an expert opinion on it." _Someone also told me it was the last of its kind, but that can wait._

"What expert?" Her face said She already knew the answer.  
"You, obviously. I haven't been able to ask you anything yet you've not been able to answer within a day or two. You're good at mystery solving, far better than anyone else I know. You knew it was a basilisk before even Dumbledore did and the old man seems to know everything!"

She was blushing now, wilting under the praise.  
"Ok, so what are we going to do with this… egg?"  
"Find out what's in it and whether it need hatching or destroying."  
"Hatching, Harry? Really?"  
"I'm a parseltongue. Assuming it doesn't kill with eye contact Im sure i can keep it under control."  
"Like you did with that snake Malfoy summoned?" She retorted with an eyebrow raised. Harry had forgotten about that, his duel with Malfoy at Lockhart's dueling club.  
"It didn't bite anyone did it?"  
"It _nearly_ did." This time She was smiling. "Ok. So, we take note of anything that might identify the egg, then we take a trip to the library while we still can to see what we can find out."  
"I've got my invisibility cloak."  
"Yes, and I have an exam tomorrow. So no, no late night adventures in the castle solving problems. I've already done that once this week." It was clear she would brook no argument.

* * *

Hermione was in Her element, it seemed. She scanned covers and leafed through books at a pace that seemed, to Harry, inhuman. Quickly he found himself buried beneath a mound of tomes that He was ordered to carry to Hermione's favourite table, one near the back hidden amongst the book shelves.

She took a seat across the table from Him, relieved Him of the top book and began parsing through it. Once he had dumped the rest He took a look at what He had been given.  
None of these had the easily understood names that the school books usually sported.

 _Index of magical fauna - Ancient and extinct_

 _Encyclopedia on serpentia vol. 3_

Harry quickly realised He was in over His head, before taking the top book, _Greate animals of olde,_ and diving in. He quickly lost his enthusiasm for the topic and it wasn't until sometime later when Hermione called for his attention that he realised He had been rereading the same line on a page on mexican great snakes for some time.

"Any idea on how old the egg is, Harry?" She whispered over to Him.  
"Really old. Older than the school I think."  
"How do you know that?" Harry drew a blank for a moment. _Voldemort told me, Voldemort told me, Voldemort told me.  
"_There was some writing in a book that... i don't know really... magically rewrote itself so i could read it but it wasn't in english. It said the eggs were older than slytherin. The name was there too but i can't write down notes in an alphabet i don't know"  
"Parseltongue?" she asked, with a tilt of the head. He shrugged.  
"That or just magically readable. I don't know." This didn't seem satisfactory, but then a lot of his answers for her questions recently hadn't been good enough for her.  
"Anyway, does the Great Emerald Viper ring a bell?"  
He gave her what he knew was a blank stare.  
"Esmeralda Vipera Magna?"  
"That sounds familiar"  
"Harry, the emerald viper has been extinct for at least a thousand years. This book is, well, _old_ and it calls them ancient. There's no way…"  
"The snake lives forever, I think. Something about "being highly magical". If we want it to, it should hatch." She looked Him in the eye.  
"Harry, are you telling me everything about this? Is there something i should know?"

" _Anyone could go where I have been."  
Is dishonesty the first step?_

"No, I am not telling You everything and, Yes, there are things You should know." She sat up straight, slammed the book shut and looked at Him, a scowl rapidly forming. "Hermione, there's no one in the world i trust more than you, but telling You half a truth is worse than nothing right now, and I don't know the whole story.

I just need you to trust me for a couple days more. I'm seeing Dumbledore again tomorrow and then, hopefully, I'll have some answers for You."

"I'm not happy, Harry. What could possibly have happened in one night that you would need to keep it from me?" She was genuinely hurt, he knew, and she was gripping the book she held hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

"A hell of a lot can happen. You know that. Monday afternoon I had no family and a mass murderer chasing me. By midnight I had an innocent Godfather, a werewolf teacher and a rat to catch."

"And this was another night like that?"

"Much worse, Hermione. Much worse. And I promise I will tell you everything soon, ok?"  
She nodded a few times, looked down at the book she was crushing with an iron grip before visibly relaxing.

"ok, then." She took a deep breath, and did her best to brush her hair behind her ears. "About this snake then"

* * *

Harry was prepared to spend most of the evening in the library, but armed with its name, they found information on the snake quickly.

Esmerelda Vipera Magna wasn't dangerous, comparatively. It had venom that could paralyse but it was actually a constricting snake, killing by crushing the breath out of its prey and suffocating them. It had no magical abilities to speak of, no eyes that killed on sight, no bursting into flames, nothing.

The reason, they found, that the snake was extinct was because it had been hunted, its scales used in a number of potions that had unique results or absurd potencies. One potion in particular had been sought after most, an elixir of life similar to the one drawn from the philosopher's stone, that required the snake be skinned alive.

Once the potion had been discovered the snake had disappeared within a few generations as men obsessed, initially, over the potion, and later, over the great wealth that could be earnt from finding one of the increasingly rare creatures.

Its native home of Egypt became the least safest place for it, its bright green flashing skin initially used to frighten off unlikely predators then being used to identify it from afar. Only those snakes who had been exported survived, and of those only a handful ever bred, the eggs needing north african sand specifically to develop, and needing the Mother's presence and protection to hatch, although the call from a parseltongue would suffice, Harry knew.

"So yes, then, this is the probably the last living specimen of its kind." Hermione confirmed, as they made their way back to gryffindor tower. "And No, I don't see any reason not to hatch it."  
"So when we doing it then? Tomorrow?" Harry asked, genuinely excited.  
"We're near the end of the school year, and it might need hands-on care. We should wait for the last day of the year and hatch it last thing before we go. That way it'll have all summer to mature."  
He hated to admit it, but She had a point. It would be a liability here at school, the appearance of a new magical snake might be cause for panic, and like she said, it might need hand rearing which could be a full time job.

They arrived at the Fat Lady's portrait and stopped.

"Ok, last day. But I _am_ hatching it before we go, alright?"  
"Yes, I'll even help you. But for now, Forget it. We have exams."  
"You have exams, I have the week off." He smiled at her and She rolled her eyes at Him.  
"I can't wait until you have to take this year's classes again because you skipped the exams." She smirked at him.  
"Dumbledore wouldn't let it happen. There _are_ perks to being the boy-who-lived."  
"Yes, but don't say that to Ron. He'd never let you forget it."

* * *

The rest of the evening went quickly, no one had homework and so friends and, in the Weasley's case, family gathered for some shared time. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred and George sat and talked into the evening. Soon, it was time for bed, and people headed off in ones and twos to their dorms.

The following morning Harry woke and for once he wasn't the first. For the third morning running he took a look around the room and had to convince himself he wasn't dreaming. Ron was still snoring away in the next bed, Dean and Seamus were gone and Neville was getting dressed.

"Alright, Neville?" Harry asked, rolling out of bed.  
"Yeah, I'm fine. And yourself?" There was a hint of uncertainty there. Harry turned and looked at him. He found he couldn't help comparing Him to the Man he would be only a couple of years later. He was still chubby, clumsy and unsure of himself. The first two he would grow out of on his own but that last one, Harry knew, he had only grown out of thanks to the D.A.

Harsh practise in the D.A. had cemented in Neville a discipline and confidence in his abilities that blossomed over the last year or two at hogwarts. The last Harry had seen him, Neville was a leader, standing at the front lines and trading blows with the best wizards Voldemort could muster.

"Yeah, I'm good."

 _It's too late this year, really, but next year I'm going to turn you into the man I know you can be._

" _When you convince someone to follow you into difficulty, when you stand united in a cause, that is power.  
When you protect those you love from the dangers of the world you will need power in it's every form."_

* * *

When breakfast time rolled around the students began filling out of the common room, Harry with them, but while most headed to the great hall for food, Harry took another corridor and after a minute found himself at a familiar stone gargoyle.

"Professor Dumbledore is expecting me" He said, to which the Gargoyle replied "And a hello to you too" before leaping aside, granting Harry entrance. Harry took the now familiar circular steps up to the office, before coming to a small wooden door, which he knocked on twice.

"You may come in." And Harry did. "Ah, Harry. Come take a seat."  
Dumbledore was sat at a small table next to the large bookcases that ran floor to ceiling. He was dressed in a lilac robe, with a gold flowery design over the surface. A chair was positioned across from Dumbledore, And Harry took it, seating himself.

"I trust you haven't eaten this early in the morning?"  
"No, sir."  
"Ah, good, then shall we organise ourselves some sustenance before we get onto the business of the day?" Harry nodded his agreement, and Dumbledore clapped his hands twice. A number of plates appeared on the table, stacked with an assortment of various breakfasts, along with a pot of milk, a jug of orange juice and 2 steel goblets.

Dumbledore grabbed a plate and helped himself to some toast and a healthy portion of bacon, before gesturing for Harry to do the same. The two ate in silence and then, when finished, Dumbledore clapped his hands again, the plated disappearing but leaving the juice and milk behind.

"Now, that we have satiated ourselves, I feel i should get straight onto the worst of the news i have for you. I feel it is the best place to start, given the conversations that may follow.

Having no knowledge of how you may have traveled in time, Harry, I enlisted the aid of an old friend, one Auden McGowell, an expert in time turners and similar pieces of equipment and spells. I spoke to him only in hypotheticals, "Are large jumps in time possible?", "What would it take?" but it was immediately clear the man had no answers for me. It was, as far as he was concerned, impossible to travel further back than 5 hours by time turner without danger and attempting more than 10 hours was surely fatal as travel begins to exert damaging forces on the body.

There were rituals and spells that could be cast, but even with the most potent of ingredients and the most powerful of wizards the most you could hope for was days, and nothing he knew of would allow someone to possess the body of their younger self. He called me a, what was it, "Crazy old hoot", for even asking." Dumbledore chuckled to himself lightly, before his tone became somber. "Additionally, there is no record i was able to find and no example Mr. McGowell could call upon where a timeline had been rewritten. Time Turners create stable time loops, not something that has happened here. I suppose things are already different this time around?"

"Yes." Harry answered simply.

"I did, however, upon reviewing your memories again, notice that the wand used on you was mine, something that i must admit escaped me the first time around.  
Do you understand the significance of that wand, Harry?"

"The elder wand? Yes. One of the deathly hallows." Harry answered.

"Good, then i needn't explain its powers or its origin. I'm sorry, Harry, but the memories you left in the pensieve give Me only so much insight into your past. It's difficult for me to guess how much you know or do not know, so i must ask, you understand?"

The Headmaster took a deep breath before retrieving from his robes the Elder wand and placing it on the table in front of him. More than a hands length long and lined in bone and covered in runes, it was as much a work of art as a tool of death.

"Do you know how the loyalty of a wand works? How it is earned?"

"An unowned wand chooses its wizard, but you can disarm a wizard and claim their wand, or kill them for it."

"Correct." Dumbledore sighed then. "I noticed that i wasn't present in any of your later memories. I would have thought, had i been able, that a future me would have attempted to protect the castle. I understand you may have tried to keep my illness or death a secret from me, or maybe just tried to avoid the topic?"

Harry shrugged and Dumbledore gave him a moment to collect his thoughts. "I suppose. Mostly i just added to the pensieve what was needed to... Uhhh..."  
"Tell the story?" Dumbledore offered.  
"Yeah. But a lot of what happened i don't really want to see again. You, Sirius, the attack on the wedding, the fights. I'm trying not to even think about them, let alone live them again."

"I do understand, but nothing must be ignored or forgotten here in case we miss something important, Harry. I ask then, do You know who may have been the wand's master when Voldemort attempted to slay you?"

Harry's eyes wandered to the floor, and his hands dropped to his lap. He allowed a minute to pass before he took a deep breath and began.

"It was Snape who killed you, on your request. But before he could, Malfoy disarmed you. He became the wand's master then, I think."  
"Draco or Lucius?"  
"Draco. I fought Him later on and took his wand with me. If no one had disarmed him between those two times then I was probably the wand's master."

Dumbledore nodded along to what Harry said, before raising a hand and patting the Elder wand that sat on the table.

"If you were, indeed, the master of the wand then that may explain some of what happened. The wand is truly wonderful, Harry, and horrifyingly powerful. Its true potential I could only guess at and no wizard alive could hope to push the wand to its limits.

Several times I have seen this wand do the impossible, I personally have cast spells through it I confess to not knowing. You may be here, Harry, because the wand could not slay its Master but saw no way to allow you to live. A wand is still a wand and casting spells is its purpose.

An unsatisfying answer, I know, but the best I have. I will continue my search for now on other ways this may have happened but I feel this may be the thick and thin of it.  
We are left then with an important question, Harry." Harry gave him a look that plainly said he didn't know what.

"Who does the wand belong to now? Call it, Harry. It will come to you if your hand is where it belongs."

Harry raised his hand from his lap, and reached towards the Elder wand. He opened his hand and the wand wobbled in its place. Dumbledore sighed, and nodded to himself at that, before looking at Harry. They exchanged a knowing look, They already knew the answer. "Wand" Harry called, and the Elder wand leapt to his hand.

The two of them sat in silence for a moment, both of them staring at the wand clutched in the young man's hand. Dumbledore removed his spectacles, rubbed his eyes, replaced them and looked Harry in the eye.

"And there we have it, Harry. This is what the wand has achieved. This may be what it has done to protect its master and the laws that govern the wand may transcend time. Who knows. Harry, You know the story, yes? Of the brothers meeting death?"

"Yes. Three brothers play a game against death, win, and each get something from him."

"The Elder wand is a terribly corrupting influence, Harry. It incites to rash behaviour and dangerous boasts. No Man who has ever carried the wand has lived a long life. I would ask you to leave the wand here. To avoid the temptation to use it. You know what the years ahead will bring you, and you know better than anyone whether you would ever need rely on its power."

"I got through once without it, and I'm a better wizard now than i was. I think i'll be alright."  
"Good, I…"  
"But professor, I'm not the boy I was before. Last time round you felt you had to protect me from who i was and what i had to do. You thought you were giving me a few good years of normal life before I would have to die to save everyone else. To me it felt like betrayal. Like I'd been manipulated from the start like a pawn in a game. You tried to hide the truth from me but in the end I had to face it without warning. It was suddenly my day to die and that was that. Not this time. You know the prophecy. It's my story, my fight. No manipulation, No secrets. I'm not a child. Do not treat me like one."

Dumbledore listened, his head hung low. When Harry finished, he lifted the sleeve of his robe and wiped away a tear.

"No, My boy, You're not a child. You could never have had a childhood. I hoped that your family would take care of you, raise you and love you, but the prophecy put a stop to that. It seems not even familial ties are stronger than fate." His words drifted off leaving a pregnant silence. It took a moment before Harry understood what had not been said.

"Neither can live while the other survives." Harry said. Dumbledore nodded. "I was never going to have a happy life. Not until Voldemort was dead."

"Yes, something I'm sorry to say i realised far too late. I had thought the meaning was clear, that you would fight and one would die, but no, it ran deeper than that. Neither may live seems to refer more to finding happiness." He wiped another tear.

"So the philosopher's stone in the first year and the basilisk in the second.."  
"You achieved the impossible, Harry. You slew a monster with a sword called from a hat. You became an arthurian legend in order to meet the requirements of the prophecy. Nothing could come between you and the final encounter, when both Yours and Tom's lives were at risk."

"But wait, People died for me. I got captured by death eaters and Dobby died to get me out. And what about Cedric? He died because i had to face Voldemort?"

"Is it not possible that every time you should lose your life someone must die in your place? You faced certain death in the department of mysteries, a handful of children against skilled opponents and the result?" He let the question hang for a moment.

"Sirius died. When the Order moved me there were deaths because i should have died then too. I faced Voldemort when i wasn't ready. Every time someone died because he wasn't vulnerable yet?"

"That seems to be a reasonable conclusion, given the evidence."  
"If i die instead someone has to die in my place?"  
"It is entirely possible, although i cannot say i know for sure. Prophecies are a strange magic."  
"I have to do this alone? To save my friends, i have to go alone?"  
"Did isolating yourself protect them the first time around?"

Harry took a moment with this. Harry, Hermione and Ron had left the rest of the world alone to save them. They had done what needed to be done and destroyed the horcruxes but while they were gone people were dying.

"No, Dobby still found us. We were still captured. Hermione was tortured. You think that was my fault?"  
"I would never be so accusatory as to say so." Dumbledore wasn't looking him in the eye anymore. "Harry, I think it would be fair to assume every interpretation of the prophecy is valid and plan accordingly."

"If someone has to die for my mistakes then I'm not allowed to make any."  
"That seems reasonable, but remember, the deaths are not your fault. A war is coming and you can't fight it alone. There will be fighting and people will lose their lives. This is unavoidable, it is in the nature of conflict.

We have spoken a fair bit and I think We have enough to think on for now." Dumbledore stood up, his posture returning to that of the proud, capable Headmaster. "Perhaps this should continue after the summer holidays? I'm sure there is more to discuss."

"Before I go professor, i have something to give you." and with that he reached into his bag and pulled out the mangled remains of the diadem. Dumbledore's eyes lit up at the sight, a smile finding its way to his face like Harry had never seen.

"This is Ravenclaw's diadem?" He asked, reverently, holding his hands out for it.  
"Yeah. I went down to the chamber of secrets yesterday to get a fang to destroy it. The horcrux is gone and i saved the diadem, kind of."  
"I will do what i can to make sure no dark magic remains, and then i shall have it repaired and returned to its rightful place in ravenclaw tower." Dumbledore said, looking over the crown, slowly turning it in his hands. "You've done the school a great service. Thankyou."

"I don't suppose i could ask for a payment for my good deed?" Harry asked with a smile on his face. Dumbledore looked up from the diadem, an eyebrow cocked, his eyes twinkling.  
"And what, exactly, would be the nature of this payment, Mister Potter?"  
"I'd like to use the pensieve again. I don't know how to tell Hermione what's happened so i'd like to just show her, if that's ok?"  
"I am sure i could allow that. I will let you know the next time i am out of the office at a time you would be able to take advantage of."

Harry smiled and nodded, accepting with a thanks and turning to leave. They probably wouldn't talk again until after the holidays although they'd both be there for the end of year feast. _After which i go…. where?_

"Uh, Professor?"  
"Yes, Harry?"  
"Where am i going to go for the holidays? Am i still under the protections? I've already said my goodbyes. Privet Drive hasn't been my _home_ in more than a year."  
"That is… I confess, I had not considered it. The spell relies upon your connection to that place and those people as home and family. If that has changed then..."

"So where am I going to go?"

Dumbledore walked to his desk and pulled out some parchment and began scribbling away. He stopped for a moment and gazed at Harry.

"Well, the first thing we shall do is take a visit to the goblins of Gringotts. They are the only ones i know of with an expertise in this field. They will be able to test whether your protections are still in effect i should hope. I shall write to Your family to let them know I will be bringing you home to them and that they need not pick you up from the train station. Once we have our answers, we shall know what it is we must do with you. But that can wait. For now, You shall return to your studies."

"Speaking of studies…" Dumbledore again raised an eyebrow at the young man "I have a request for next year."


	6. Chapter 6

Friday had come and gone, the last of the examinations done with and the final week of the year had arrived. Most of the student body were entertaining themselves, relaxing after a stressful week of tests and cram studies and for those in 7th year it was a time to begin their goodbyes to the school and the students.

Harry and Hermione, however, were not relaxing. They were inside the Headmaster's office, Harry having received a letter the previous night that read "You will be unable to reach me tomorrow, i am otherwise engaged".

Hermione was inside the pensieve, the bright glow emanating from it the only thing giving away her presence in the room at all. Harry was still adding memories, doing his best to add them chronologically, and suffering a growing headache from the mental stress dumping large amounts of memories apparently causes.

They had started early in the morning, Harry hoping to maximise his time in the office; they might not have another opportunity before the following year and they had a lot to go over.

Harry had to admire Hermione for her willingness and trust in him. He had come to her last night and asked her to come with him early the following morning and she had accepted without delay, only afterwards asking what for.

He had taken her into the pensieve to show her the first memory that might be relevant to them, the start of year speech by Dumbledore for what will be their fourth year, and together they had worked out how to move from memory to memory and how to rewind and accelerate them. After some time he had left her in charge, left the pensieve and started placing memories into it ahead of her.

It was becoming difficult to stay completely focused through the growing migraine but he thought he'd done a good job. A rough story, no gory details excluded, from their fourth year to his last moments. He added the last memory, his first conversation with Dumbledore after his "return", and stood up before plunging his head into the pensieve to join his friend.

* * *

Harry was then confronted with a huge hedge row multiple times Harry's height and turning around met another. It was growing dark, the sun was setting but not much light would have made it this far down into the labyrinth anyway. Standing in the shade of the hedge maze was a ball of brown frizzy hair, looking away from him, staring intently at some action going on further down the path.

"Hey 'Mione" he called, and she turned, smiled and ran at him and threw herself at him, engulfing him in embrace. She took half a step back to look him in the eye before shouting in his face.  
"Harry, you fought a dragon!"  
"More like ran away from…"  
"And you swam to the bottom of the lake! You saved that french girl when you shouldn't have!"  
"Yeahh…"  
"And now you're doing pretty well here." and she turned aside to let him see what was happening. Harry hadn't really had time to wonder how she had got through nearly a years worth of memories in an hour or two but if he had the answer would now be obvious. The pensieve was playing the memories back to them at a cartoonishly fast pace, with the memory Harry slowly advancing his way through the maze, peeking around corners and keeping an eye over his shoulder, but his legs were a blur of activity.

His encounter with an egyptian sphynx came and went in only a few seconds before harry was off again. It was all very odd.

"Have you been watching the whole thing like this?" he asked her.  
"Only the action. I had to slow it down for the conversations." she answered, intent again on the events unfolding before her. Memory Harry came across an unconscious Fleur in the maze, took her wand and fired sparks into the air with it, before accelerating off at the fastest walking speed Harry had ever seen.

"It's really hard to take it seriously like this." He remarked, smiling at the insanity.  
"I know, but how else am i meant to cram so much into one day?" Harry nodded his agreement before raising his hand and pulling the memory to an instantaneous stop. He turned to her and waited for her to look back at him, her brown eyes alive in interest.

"So, you're a smart girl. Have you worked out what you're looking at, yet?"  
"Well. It's not a vision or a prophecy, they're not this detailed i don't think." Harry chuckled at that. _He will have a power the dark lord knows not._  
"No, no they are not." She raised an eyebrow at this and allowed a small smirk to form, acknowledging another part of the story she hadn't seen yet.  
"And it's not the past either, none of this has happened yet. Fabricated memories maybe? A confundus charm?"  
"What makes you say this hasn't happened?"  
"Say it has happened, then. You'd have had to travel back in time more than a year. That's impossible."  
"Hermione, four years ago you thought magic was impossible." She placed her hands on her hips.  
"And i would have been wrong to think that." she said, in that _I know what im talking about_ way she uses so often, coming out a little more upper class and well spoken than normal for her.

Harry just looked at her, dead in the eye, raised his eyebrows and said nothing. A moment passed, then another and then her jaw dropped and her eyes widened.

"You're from the future?!"  
"Yes." Her mouth was still wide open.  
"H-how?!"  
"Really, i don't know specifically. Me and Dumbledore both think it's a powerful wand that did it but there's no way to know for sure"  
"But you're really from the future?" he nodded, and the look of shock dropped from her face. "How far on?"  
"Four years or so."

" _Four years?_ So all of this…" she gestured around her indicating the memory they were in.  
"My...uhh… past life, i guess."  
"C-can you go back?" She was in shock. He had said something unbelievable and she had trusted in him immediately. Again, he found himself being thankful for this wonderful woman in his life.  
"I don't think so, and if i could i wouldn't. You'll see why later."  
"Do things really turn out that bad?"  
"For me, yeah. I don't know about everyone else."  
"Oh, Harry." she stepped up to him again and gave him another hug, this time slower and tighter.  
"Hey, it's alright. Everyone wishes for a second chance, right? Well i've got one. It's a good thing, really. There's a lot i can do better this time around."

She let go of him, nodded her agreement and rubbed her eyes and nose with her sleeve with an accompanying sniff, rubbing away the very beginnings of a little cry.  
"Hermione, before we go any further, i want you to prepare yourself for what's about to happen. It gets nasty here, really quickly."

* * *

Harry and Cedric grabbed the cup together in triumph and were immediately whisked away to the graveyard of little Hangleton.  
"Wands out d'you reckon?" Cedric asked.  
"Kill the spare" came a distant whisper in response. A flash of green later the Hogwarts' champion lay dead. Hermione screamed.

* * *

"I know. I know." Harry kept saying, as Hermione bawled, her head pushing into his chest. He gently rubbed her head and held her close. It wasn't pleasant for Harry to relive this particular memory but that was nothing next to her seeing it for the first time. His shirt was wet with tears by the time she was ready to continue although the shaking and occasional sob took longer to go.

"The hand of a servant, willingly given." Pettigrew said, he voice becoming increasing unsteady, before taking a knife and working it at the wrist. It wasn't quite a clean cut and the bone took a separate slash from the flesh. The rat faced man screamed in pain and fell to one knee, holding his stump wrist as it sprayed blood across the graveyard.

Hermione watched in horror. Harry was impassive at best.

* * *

"This is why you don't want to go back." It wasn't a question, and she said it with a steady voice even though tears were still flowing down her cheeks. The two of them stood in front of the cauldron Peter had been working on and from the depths of which a tall, skeletal figure had stood. Harry had his arm over her shoulder, holding her close and answering any questions. She didn't need telling who the snake faced monster was or what might happen next. She looked up into Harry's eyes. "How bad does it get?"

"Bad. The ministry collapses, hundreds die, hundreds more go into hiding. Azkaban is destroyed and _He_ recruits everyone in there. They kill entire families for fun."  
"So how do we beat him?"  
"We don't. At least, we didn't, i don't think so. Which is why i'm happy to be here, now." He took a deep breath and let it out in a drawn out sigh, then offered his hand to her and she took it without hesitation. "Come on, i think you've seen enough for one day."

With a sudden sensation of falling he pulled them both back to the Headmaster's office. Hermione held on to him for balance for a moment before finding her feet.

"Only you Harry."  
"What?"  
"Time Travel. I suppose it's _real_ time travel, not the closed loops the time turner makes?"  
"Yeah. things are already different. We never had this conversation before. I never went back to the chamber, i didn't find the egg. Yeah, stuff's changed."  
"Only you. Trouble sticks to you like the worst glue."

He looked her in the eyes. She was smiling but it didn't reach her eyes. She was worried, like she always was, like she would be for years to come.

"Why me? why aren't you telling Ron?"

Harry took his glasses off, pinched his nose with closed eyes, affixed his glasses and then looked her in the eyes.  
"You saw the memories. You tell me."

She looked down a little and chewed her lip. She took a moment, and harry took the time to look over the shelves that lined the office.

"He stopped talking to you after you were made champion?"  
"Pretty much, but there's more."  
"He was just jealous. He didn't handle it well. I don't understand why you'd want to hide this and let that happen again."  
"He wasn't jealous of me, he was jealous of the boy who lived, and his legendary prankster brothers, and all the prefects and head boys in the family. He has a lot to live up to and dealing with that is his business."  
"You're not going to help?"  
"How do i? What's the right way to say to someone _you need to grow up and be your own man?_ There's no good way, and even if i did it would just happen again. It _did_ happen again. I'll just rob him of something if i provide the answers he needs anyway. And he's a weasley, in my experience they don't take well to criticism. I think i just let him work this out for himself and tell him everything once he's ready to be friendly again."  
"You've given this a lot of thought then?"  
"I guess. Maybe not enough, i dunno. I've tried to take his feelings into account is all."  
"The Harry i know never would have. He'd have told Ron day one." He looked at her. There was no accusation in the way she said it, it was just an observation, and her face wasn't showing any expression.  
"Is that a problem?"  
"No. You've matured is all. It's odd to see you so thoughtful." Harry couldn't help but laugh at that. The words _You have the emotional range of a teaspoon_ leapt to mind.  
"Yeah, thanks for the support." she smiled and playfully slapped him on the arm.

He took a moment to look over the shelves of the office, the lower shelves holding more mundane items than the elaborate and esoteric instruments that were at head height, before finding himself a glass jar that would suit his purposes. He drew his wand, dipped the tip in the pensieve and then tapped the jars rim, the weird, grey memory substance floating along behind the wand and then flowing upwards into the jar unassisted. After a moment the pensieve was empty and the jar nearly full. They gathered their things and made ready to leave.

"Hopefully, i'll be able to get access to a pensieve, or maybe one of my own, that you can use to get caught up on what you've missed."  
"You're not leaving the memories for Dumbledore?"  
"No, these are for you. If dumbledore wants to know the future he can ask me. He has a habit of keeping secrets and i refuse to be left out anymore."

* * *

The last few days of the year went by quickly and, before long, the end of year feast came along with the student's last night at hogwarts before they returned home. The feast went by without incident and as it came to end Harry got Ron's attention. "Follow me, I've got something to show you." Ron didn't need telling twice, Hermione didn't need telling at all, and before long the three friends were standing at the entrance to the room of hidden things.

"So i went down to the chamber of secrets to get a basilisk fang for Dumbledore"  
"Really? Better you than me" Ron shivered.  
"Without a psycho trying to obliviate you and with no one's life on the line, it isn't all that bad"  
"I'll take your word for it."  
"Yeah well, i found something while i was down there."

Hermione took the opportunity to try to get the door to appear while harry explained.  
"Found a snake egg."  
"A basilisk?! Bloody hell harry do you _want_ to kill someone?" Harry chuckled and Hermione huffed.  
"Not a basilisk, no. An extinct viper egg. We're gonna hatch it and i'm gonna take it home."  
Hermione gave a tiny hurrah as she made the door appear and opened it.  
"A snake? Harry they're as bad as spiders! It could eat us. You don't know what it's thinking."  
"You don't but i speak snake. I can keep it under control i think."  
"Like you did with malfoy's?"  
"Why does everyone keep bringing that up?"

Harry and Hermione walked into the room as the argument continued and it wasn't until ron was through the door he noticed where they were.

"Woah."  
"Yeah, i know right?"

Just like hermione, Ron took some time to gather his bearings and take in the strange space he found himself in. Hermione took a moment to indulge her curiosity as harry explained to ron what the room was. After a moment to explore the three gathered and harry pulled the invisibility cloak from the egg. The three of them leaned in, shoulder to shoulder, to get a good look at the mystery before them.

Slightly larger than Harry's fist, the egg was a glittering leaf green and covered in a segmented hexagonal pattern that reminded harry of the chocolate eggs Dudley gets on easter. It looked like an ornament, the pattern too perfect and the surface too shiny to be real.

"So, what do i say do you think?" Harry asked his friends and Ron looked back with a face that described exactly how he felt. _I have no idea.  
_ "Don't you just… tell it to hatch?" Hermione ventured.  
"That's the plan, but what exactly?" he got no answer and so he returned his focus to the egg before him and tried to imagine the snake inside.  
" _It's time to hatch. Come on out."_ he spoke. As far as he was aware it was just words but the way Ron visibly shivered let him know he had spoken in parseltongue. A moment passed and nothing happened. " _Hatch. Wake up."_

The egg gave the tiniest little tremble and Hermione made a little squeak noise and her hand covered her mouth.

" _Get out of bed. You've overslept a little."_ Harry chuckled a little at that. The egg gave a little shake.

" _Come on. Get out here."_ the egg shook again, this time stronger. Then another shake and another.

The process in all took a lot longer than they expected, the movement inside continuing for a few minutes before finally a crack appeared in the shell. The egg was softer than it looked and the crack bent outwards as the creature inside applied pressure to it. A little bit of transparent, yellow liquid leaked out flecked with red before, agonisingly slowly, something dark green poked through the growing gap.

A snake head poked through the gap and looked at them, blinked, and disappeared back inside. Hermione made a little noise that made the other two look at her. "It's so cute!" Harry smiled at her, turned to the egg and spoke " _Hello in there"  
_ The tiny snake stuck its head back through the gap and looked at him. Harry held out his hand and hissed again " _Hey"._ The snake stretched out of the egg and brushed his skin with its tongue before retreating once more.

"Is it scared?" Ron asked. "It was born 2 minutes ago. I would be." Harry replied.

Not wanting to rush the process and having time to spare the three of them watched and waited for the new arrival to become comfortable and make a proper appearance. Eventually, the snake made its way out of the egg and made a lap of the inside of the cauldron, leaving wet trails in the golden sand.

It was about as thick as a finger and nearly the length of Harry's forearm. Glittering, green scales lined its body from tip to tail, except around its eyes where they took on a yellow colour. The eyes were jet black.

Harry presented his hand again and, having given it another sniff and with a little encouragement, slid up into his palm before disappearing up his sleeve. It coiled up below his wrist and that was that.

"Well, now what?" Ron asked. Hermione drew her wand, extinguished the enchanted flame and cast reparo on the egg, the small hole in the side sealing itself. Ron and Harry watched her and when she noticed she simply said "It's pretty" before depositing the egg in a robe pocket.

"Well, i don't know how to care for a snake, so a trip to Hagrid's might be in order if we've got time." he looked at his watch. It was nearly 10 o'clock, curfew, and while he had his cloak it wasn't necessarily urgent. It needed to be kept warm, he knew that much, and he was sure snakes didn't feed daily so it'd be ok overnight and he was going diagon alley tomorrow so he could learn what he needed then.

The four of them made the trip to the gryffindor common room for the last night of the year, said their goodnights and retired to their respective bedrooms. Harry carefully took his robe off, rolled it up and put it on his bed leaving the snake laden sleeve on top. As he carried on undressing the snake poked its nose out from the robe and turned its big black eyes on him.

When he was ready he climbed into bed and stared at the little one. " _You're not going to bite me in my sleep, are you?"_ the snake stuck it's tongue out and tasted the air. If that was an answer Harry didn't understand. "Right. Night then i guess." He took his glasses off, covered himself and his little friend in the quilt and closed his eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

Harry woke suddenly. A grumble and a cough from the next bed told him Ron had snored himself awake. Harry went to grab his glasses from the bedside table before remembering his new little friend. He carefully donned his glasses and looked down into the pile of clothing next to him.

Still in the sleeve of his bundled up robes, part of its body peeking out but its head tucked inside, was the snake. Harry smiled to himself and, as carefully as he could, climbed out of bed. Ron, having rolled over, was snoring away and the other boys were still asleep. Harry checked his watch. It was still early morning and there was no rush.

Turning to the green bundle coiled up in his robes he gave it a quick look to make sure it was still alive. After looking at it for a moment he could see that it was very gently expanding and contracting with steady breathing. so reassured, he grabbed a towel and went and had a shower.

By the time he got back Dean was awake and getting dressed although the others had seemingly not moved. "I don't get how they can sleep through _that"_ he said, nodding his head to indicate Ron's prone form, as Harry reentered the room.

"Hey Dean, wanna see something cool?"  
"Cool what? Cool new weasley trick or cool new thing that's gonna put us in hospital?"  
"If I had to say, more of the second, but i don't think it's dangerous. Look."

Dean followed Harry to his bed where Harry revealed the little green bundle still wrapped up and sleeping. Dean leaned down to get a look.

"When did you get that?"  
"I hatched it last night. Found it."  
"It's not gonna start petrifying people is it?"  
"Nah, the basilisk was a big black thing."  
"Well, alright then. Just don't let Justin see it." Dean smiled, nodded at Harry and then went back to getting ready for the morning. Harry was left a little deflated, he had hoped Dean might have been as excited as he was.

He threw on some clothes and laid down on his bed looking at what he could see of his pet. _Oh, pet. Hedwig is not going to be happy._ He smiled at the thought and then leaned closer to his bundled robes.

" _Hello?"_ He hoped he was speaking parseltongue, he couldn't tell. There was movement in the hood and the snake popped it's little head out and looked at him.  
" _Did you sleep well?"_ Harry asked. The snake gave a flick of it's tongue. Not quite the response he'd gotten from the snake in the zoo all those years ago.  
" _Do you understand me?"_ another flick of the tongue and a little movement, but nothing to show clearly that it understood one way or another. It just sat and stared at him.  
" _I wonder if you're like a baby. Does it take a while to learn to speak?"_ the snake sat and stared. " _Right. Ok then."_

It was then he noticed Dean standing and staring at him. "It's all kinds of creepy when you do that, you know?"

Before long, Neville and Seamus were awake, leaving only Ron strewn across his bed snoring. Seamus hurried to get ready and he and Dean departed for breakfast. Eventually Neville was ready too. Harry had been talking to his snake the whole time but was now getting bored with that. He looked over at the redheaded mess that was his friend.

"Ron, time to wake up."  
"Wassat? Watimeisit?"  
"Nearly 9. You've got an hour before they stop serving breakfast."

Ron's reply was a grumble and a snore. Harry threw a pillow at him, and having checked to see that woke him up ( "What was _that_ for?!" ) gently scooped up the snake, donned his robe and left for breakfast with Neville.

Hermione was already awake, sitting in the common room in a sofa chair, with her nose, as ever, firmly buried in a book. When she noticed their arrival she closed the book with a thud and stood, flattened her skirt and looked at them.

"Are you feeling alright, Harry? It's unlike you to be up before noon."  
"Oh, ha ha."

They had some time to spare so made their way down to the great hall. Breakfast was a casual affair, aside from Harry showing the snake to anyone who took even a passing interest. Eventually Ron made an appearance and ate with none of the rushing normally associated with a Weasley's last day anywhere. As the morning came to an end and the students gathered in the main hall a hush fell over the assembly as Professor McGonagall entered.

"First years, if you would all follow me. Prefects, if you would lead the way to the carriages. Have a lovely summer everyone and i will see you all again next year. Hogwarts is now closed. You are all dismissed."

300 students collectively sighed in relief as McGonagall turned and left the hall, followed by the first years. The noise immediately grew as everyone started conversation and began the trek through the entrance hall and down the main path to hogsmeade where the carriages were waiting.

Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville all walked together, the topic of conversation being the chudley cannons' recent defeat at the hands of a newcomer brazilian team in an exhibition match, much to Ron's chagrin.

The carriages had just come into view through the crowds when Hermione made a small squeaking noise and gripped Harry's arm tight. Her other hand raised up and she pointed at the nearest carriage, a look of shock on her face.

"Harry. Whatare _those?"_ Harry followed the direction her finger was pointing but saw nothing out of the ordinary.  
"What are what?"  
"The giant winged things!"  
"Oh. thestrals. I'm surprised you can see them."  
"Thestrals? _That's_ a thestral? That looks nothing like how fantastic beasts described them."  
"You would know."  
"Why _can_ i see them? I read you have to see someone die."  
"Well you did, didn't you?"  
"Ced.. uh, the pensieve?"  
"I guess so. I was told it was more of a _facing mortality_ anyway"

Hermione might normally have been excited to learn some tidbit of information but was somewhat distracted by the huge beasts. She was showing obvious hesitation in getting any closer to the animals and harry was not prepared to wait. He took her by the hand and with a gentle tug guided hermione closer to the nearest creature. They waited a little while for the crowds to thin out to avoid the strange looks Harry knew they'd receive for petting seemingly nothing, before harry held out his left hand for one to sniff, keeping his right hand and the snake in his sleeve as far away as possible.

The thestral was about as tall at the shoulder as harry, about five and a half feet, with its head well above that. It was at a cursory glance a black horse, but it had thick, leathery skin pulled taut over a skeletal frame, blood red eyes, sharp prominent teeth, had reptilian eyes on a narrow face and instead of hooves sported hooked, birdlike talons. The biggest difference though were the huge, batlike wings, connected by a membrane that ran the entire flank of the beast. When Harry had ridden one before he had had to sit on it's rump, the wings not giving any space to sit further forward.

The horse-thing gave Harry's hand a sniff before immediately losing interest. He reached up and gently touched it's face below it's eyes, which it didn't seem to mind, and harry began petting it, running his hand through the fine, glossy black hair. Hermione was less than eager to join him.

"Harry, what are you doing?" Neville's voice sounded from behind the two.  
"He's lost his mind, mate." Came Ron's reply.  
"Yeah, they're dangerous right?"  
"What?"

Ron looked at Neville like he'd just grown wings. Neville looked back nonplussed for a second before Harry interrupted the scene.

"This is a thestral. It's a horse… bat...lizard thing and you have to see someone die to see it"  
"They're bad luck right?!" Ron half shouted the question.  
Hermione turned and placed her hands on her hips. "Really Ron, have you _ever_ had a good reason to believe in _any_ of your superstitions?"  
"Plenty."  
"Name one."

The ever present bickering between the two began immediately and continued long after everyone else had gotten bored waiting for them.

"Don't you all have places to be, hmm?" Came the voice of Professor Sinistra. She had her hands on her hips and was wearing a smile. The argument petered out immediately. Harry took a look around and realised there's was the only carriage he could see, the others long gone. He looked back at her and she had spotted that he had noticed. "Exactly. Get going already so i can home."

* * *

The carriage trip was short and mostly quiet. Neville took a moment to hold a conversation with Hermione about the growth of Blue Powder Moss and its uses. Harry and ron spent the time pestering Harry's snake. Soon, they arrived at Hogsmeade station, grabbed their trunks, Harry taking hedwig and her cage, and climbed aboard the express.

Being almost the last onboard they struggled to find an empty cabin and had travelled almost the whole train when they came across a ravenclaw of a higher year in a cabin on her own. Harry knocked and when she gave a small nod he opened the door "mind if we sit here?"

She gave them a once over, one eyebrow raised, before shrugging with a "By all means" and motioning to the seats across from her.

Harry, Hermione, Neville and Ron all piled in, stowed their trunks on the overhead shelving and took their seats, Hermione taking a seat next to the ravenclaw and the boys sitting across from them.

As Harry took the seat nearest the window the ravenclaw held out her hand. It was a brief second before he realised she wanted him to shake it. He took it and gave it a firm squeeze and a shake.

"Fortuna Fawley."  
Harry met her eyes. She was pretty, he supposed, pronounced cheekbones and narrow features matched with wide, light brown eyes. Her hair was mousey brown and hung in a ponytail over her shoulder. She sat with one leg crossed over the other and her skirt tucked tightly underneath her.  
"Harry Potter."  
"I'm quite aware." She gave him a small smile and turned to the others in the compartment.  
"This is Hermione Granger."  
"Charmed." Sitting next to each other, Fortuna gave her a polite nod.  
"Ron weasley."  
"Pleasure." She extended her hand again and Ron took it for the briefest moment.  
"And this is Neville Longbottom."  
"A Longbottom?" She held out her hand and Neville gave her the least confident handshake Harry had ever seen.  
"Uhhuh. I didn't know there was a Fawley at hogwarts." He replied. Neville was keeping eye contact but Harry could see it was uncomfortable for him.  
"A few hours ago there was three of us. Just me now. My brother and cousin just graduated." She gave him another polite smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"I'm sorry if we're intruding. There wasn't really anywhere else to go." Harry said. She looked back at him, glanced at the others and gave a little sigh.  
"It's no bother, really. I had hoped to get a little reading done in privacy but it can wait until i'm home, i suppose."  
"So what year are you in?"  
"Sixth" she answered quickly and then "Seventh, now, i should say. And you will be in your... third?"  
"Fourth" Hermione corrected.

At that moment the Express' whistle sounded and the train got underway, the coaches rattling one at a time as the train pulled taut. Fortuna produced a book from seemingly nowhere and got to reading. Harry turned to Neville.

"So you know the Fawley's then?" Fortuna looked up at him and gave him a cold stare. Neville looked at her for a moment before she gave him the tiniest of nods.  
"Know of, really. The Fawley's are one of the old pureblood families."  
"And doesn't my Uncle just love to remind me." The ravenclaw interjected. "Quite disappointed the family was when my brother and i were made ravenclaws." She had a genuine smile on now. "My parents didn't care so much. You're a longbottom, What did yours think?"  
"Uhhh...well, my Nan expected me to be gryffindor i think. Both of my parents were, so.."  
She nodded along to what he was saying, then took in a breath to reply and froze. She looked Neville in the eyes as hers slowly widened. Harry gave a little smirk, She knew what had happened to Neville's parents, it seems.  
"Don't worry about it. It's fine" Neville said, his gaze dropping to his shoes.  
"I'm sorry, I…"  
"Really, it's ok."

That was the end of the conversation for a while. Fortuna just stared at her hands, her face bright red, and the others sat in silence while the moment passed. It was nearly an hour into the journey before something decided to break the awkward silence.

"What is that?" Ron asked, pointing at the window.

A large red and green bird was flying alongside the train, a letter tied to its foot. It looked at their window then looked away, then looked at them again. Harry stood and opened the window and the bird wasted no time at all in barreling in.

With a flap of its massive wings it settled on the chair next to a startled looking Hermione, shook itself, and then presented its leg to the still standing Harry. He knelt down, took the letter and without delay the bird was off again, messing Fortuna's hair on the way out getting a panicked squeak from her.

Harry closed the window and sat down, looking at the letter. He pulled it open and looked at the name at the bottom. He looked up at the others to find everyone in the room was staring at him.

"It's from Padfoot."  
"Oh! How is he? What does it say?" Hermione was the first to ask. Harry smiled at her and read the letter.

 _Little prongs  
I'm doing well. The old geezer has me out of the country. I need rest and relaxation, apparently. I'll try and come back soon but i still need fixing, Doctor's orders.  
I'll write more now im settled.  
Griff is well.  
Good job keeping your letter simple. That's good thinking.  
I want to hear about everything you've been up to but some things need to be said in person.  
Say hi to H and R for me and Moony if you see him  
Padfoot  
Ps. "Little prongs" would have made your dad laugh. You're so much his son._

Harry quickly read through it, then read it again slower. A tear rolled down his cheek before Harry realised he was crying. He wiped it away, quickly read through the letter again and handed it to Hermione, who was nearly bouncing with excitement to read it.

"Is it bad news or something?" Neville asked looking at him, worry clear on his face.  
"No." his voice broke. He gave a huge sniff, coughed and then attempted answering again "No, it's good. It's from my godfather. He's the only real family I have."  
"Is this a conversation you'd rather have in private?" Fortuna asked, her eyebrow raised.  
"Sorry about this" Harry replied, laughing. "No, I miss him is all."

Hermione read it with a smile, handed it to Ron, then looked at Harry.  
"That's nice. Are you going to reply now?"  
"Uhhh…" He looked up at hedwig. "Wanna deliver a letter?" She batted her wings on the cage and gave him a hoot. "It's pretty far. You sure?" She hooted again and he looked at Hermione. "Yeah, I guess so."

She beamed a smile and jumped up and started rifling through her things. Harry stood and opened Hedwig's cage. She hopped out onto his arm and gave his nose a nip. He stroked her a bit, rubbed her cheek before she hopped onto the small table under the window. As he sat down hermione shoved a quill and parchment under his nose.

It wasn't until he put quill to paper he realised he didn't have much he could say in a letter yet so much more than he could fit in one. It was several long minutes before he gave it up as a lost cause. He'd write later, he eventually decided.

* * *

Aside from a visit from the food trolley, idle chatter filled the rest of the journey to Kings Cross station. When the train came to a stop Fortuna was the first on her feet and with a quick "goodbye" was gone.

"What's her problem?" Ron asked with a smile.

Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville collected their belongings and vacated the train together. As Harry stepped off the train he took a moment to take in the atmosphere. Hundreds of students and their families bustled around, happy smiles and hugs being exchanged all around. Ron and Hermione beelined towards their respective families and greeted them with enthusiasm, Neville greeting his gran with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

In previous times there had been a melancholy in times like these; afterall, he didn't have a family to call his own. This time however he found himself vicariously enjoying the moments around him.  
 _It's been so long since I've seen genuine smiles._

The thought was interrupted by a sharp tug on the hem of his shirt. Looking down he found a house elf, wearing the Hogwarts crest, looking up at him.  
"For mister potter, sir" the little elf said, brandishing a letter at him. He took it, unfolded it and inside found the spiraling script of Dumbledore.

 _Harry  
I've made arrangements at Gringotts. I imagine such a mature young man can make his own way? If you lack muggle money tell Fozz and he will provide some.  
Leave your belonging with him too. They will be quite safe  
Albus_

Harry smiled to himself. _It's Albus now, is it?_ He looked down at the the little elf waiting patiently at his side. Harry took a knee before asking "It's Fozz, right?"  
"Yes, Master Potter" the elf answered, with comically enthusiastic nodding.  
"Im alright to leave my things with you?"  
"Ofcourse, Master Potter. Fozz will take good care of them."  
"And Dumbledore mentioned muggle money?"  
"Yes, Master potter" With another exaggerated nod, the elf raised a hand and with a click summoned a wad of cash. Without looking Harry could tell there was hundreds of pounds in there; it seemed even Dumbledore is clueless on the Muggle world.

Taking the proffered notes from Fozz, Harry thanked him, gave Fozz the handle to his trunk, made an apology to Hedwig ("I'll get you out later, promise") before beginning his trek to the false wall that functioned as the exit to Kings Cross station. He had almost made it when something brown and fluffy barreled into him and began crushing him in a bear hug.

"Hermione…?"  
"You take care of yourself, Harry."  
"What do you mean?" She released her grip on him and looked him in the eye.  
"Don't let what happened get to you. Relax and have a good summer. None of it happened and it doesn't have to happen again, ok?"

It took him a while to answer. "Im lucky to have you as a friend, you know that?" She hid her face, suddenly bashful "and yeah, i'll be fine. It'll be good to have some time off. Enjoy your summer, i'll see you soon"


End file.
